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Morris Worm Turning 20

Posted by Soulskill on from the malware-what-is-that dept.

netbuzz writes "The Internet will mark an infamous anniversary Sunday, when the Morris worm turns 20. Considered the first major attack on the 'Net, Morris served as a wake-up call about the risk of software bugs, and it set the stage for network security to become an important area of computer science. It was also the first time many non-techies heard of the 'Net, as the mainstream media covered the story extensively." Reader maximus1 contributes a brief ITWorld story about Robert Morris himself.

2 of 84 comments (clear)

  1. Re:We should be celebrating! by zappepcs · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Technically, I think it makes programmers better and THAT makes the net safer... more or less. Back then people could say "oh shit, didn't know they could do that!" but today it means, or can mean, loss of revenue via real data loss or via decreased reputation. So now instead of "shit, didn't know they could do that" has become "shit, they did it again. Quick, delete the evidence, and don't tell anyone... someone call marketing/legal, get the spin machine goin."

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  2. Wakeup call implies people actually woke up by Snowblindeye · · Score: 5, Insightful

    ... served as a wake-up call about the risk of software bugs, and it set the stage for network security...

    Calling it a wake-up call would imply that people actually woke up and fixed things afterwards.

    I don't think that happened. ActiveX was invented after the Morris worm. People wrote email programs that interpreted VBScript in the mail and executed it after the Morris worm.

    Remember the goodtimes virus hoax? It was a joke that a virus could propagate via email. It was funny, because viruses *couldn't* propagate via email. Then people implemented that feature in mail programs, opening the door to a rapid rise in email viruses. All, *after* the Morris worm.

    So give me a break, but I don't think anybody woke up that time. Or later, for that matter. I don't think the mainstream is taking network security seriously to this day.