The Internet will mark an infamous anniversary on Sunday, when the Morris worm turns 20.

Robert Tappan Morris

Morris is the son of a former National Security Agency scientist named Robert Morris. Robert is the creator of the Morris worm. This worm was credited as the first computer worm spread through the Internet. Because of his actions, he was the first person to be prosecuted under the 1986 Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.

Morris created the worm while at Cornell as a student claiming that he intended to use the worm to see how large the Internet was at the time. The worm, however, reproduced itself uncontrollably, shutting down many computers until they had completely malfunctioned. Experts claim 6,000 machines were destroyed. Morris was ultimately sentenced to three years’ probation, 400 hours of community service and assessed a $10,500 fine.

Morris is now a tenured professor at the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. His focus is computer network architecture.

(source: http://blog.bor030.net/filiferovic/2008/02/29/top-5-hakera-svih-vremena/)
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