Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

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.

5 of 84 comments (clear)

  1. Wow... by Facegarden · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I would LOVE to see some of that old news footage!
    -Taylor

    --
    Worldwide Military budgets: $2100 billion. Worldwide Space Exploration budgets: $38 billion. Really, world? Really?
    1. Re:Wow... by altek · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I was only 8 years old at the time. But I remember it well, because I was already very into computers (programming in BASIC on an Apple IIe, and my friend's C64).

      Anyway, I remember it being on the news every day, and they were using all kinds of scary "Computer virus" graphics, and talking about virus this and that. I don't recall the word "worm" being used.

      But the thing I remember most about the coverage was some of the journalists warning that it is still unknown whether or not computer viruses can be transferred to humans! I'm not kidding, they actually were trying to spread fear that people could catch this virus too. I don't know if this was intentional, or due to sheer ignorance. And they were also saying it could be transferred between PC's over the air (and I'm not confusing this with sneakernet)...

      So yea, I wish I could see some of that old footage too :)

      --
      THE MAGIC WORDS ARE SQUEAMISH OSSIFRAGE
  2. not far from the tree by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    These renowned security hackers (Allman, Spafford, Bellovin, etc) speak of leniency for rtm, which I have no problem with. But rarely mentioned is the fact that they all knew of (or knew personally or worked with) rtm's dad, who was a crypto hacker himself, so they all weren't entirely unbiased about the incident.

  3. RMJCC FTW! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    http://noname.c64.org/csdb/group/?id=2059

    -monk coast

  4. RTM by interval1066 · · Score: 1, Interesting

    For an excellent verbal picture of Morris, his exploits, and the net as a whole in that era read Steven Levy's "Hackers." Having lived in Redwood City, Ca, one block from the El Camino Real, having accessed MIT's CS facility and seen the "lusers" login message for myself, and even tried the famous choc. chip cookie recipe, and having as a close friend an ex-employee of the old Sierra On-Line Games, all mentioned in the book, it was just a delightful read. It was fun to connect up the missing dots in my incomplete memory of the early days of the internet.

    --
    Python: 'And then suddenly you have a language which says "we're all stuck with whatever the whiniest coder wants".'