The first computer virus

This message may appear malicious, however it is completely harmless. This text appears
because of a type of virus, a worm and it’s the first of its kind. A worm will infect a computer and
then spread itself. It finds vulnerabilities to make its way to other computers, it spreads and
multiplies. Worms can be malicious and mess with the code on your computer, the one that
displayed this message was not the harmful kind. This is Creeper.
In 1971 Creeper was created by a man named Bob Thomas. He created the Creeper worm as a
test to see if it was possible to create such a program. This virus didn't actually multiply itself in
its first version, it would just move from computer to computer so it wasn't until Ray Tomlinson
would design a version that had self replicating abilities.
The Creeper virus can be deleted. Another program was created by Ray Tomlinson that would
get rid of the virus. It was called Reaper. This was the first anti-virus.
This virus is not like many of today's viruses, its only purpose was to test the security of
computers. Even though the name sounds menacing, the Creeper virus is probably the least
dangerous virus ever made.

Comments