Robert Morris: The Computer Scientist Who Developed the First Internet Worm

Robert Morris: The Computer Scientist Who Developed the First Internet Worm

In 1988, Robert Morris was a student at Cornell University, studying computer science and robotics. However, his academic career was derailed by his invention: the world's first computer worm. It made Morris the first person to be tried and convicted under the 1986 Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, making him Computer Science's first felon. So who was Robert Morris: pioneering programmer, or criminal hacker?

Morris was born in 1965 in New York City, the son of Robert Morris, Sr., an influential mathematician and then-director of the National Science Foundation. From an early age, Morris showed an aptitude for computer programming. He won multiple awards at the 1985 International Science and Engineering Fair. He eventually enrolled in Cornell University's computer science program, where he began to develop his own computer software.

In 1988, Morris was the first person to write the so-called "Morris Worm". The worm created copies of itself on other computers connected to the Internet, overwhelming them with too much data. In the days before anti-virus and firewall software, the Morris Worm effectively destroyed many computers' system resources by using them up.

Morris had intended to merely show the security vulnerabilities of computers connected to the Internet, and had no malicious intent with his invention. However, it also frustrated many computer users and caused property damage. For his offence, Morris was found guilty and was given three years of probation and ordered to pay thousands of dollars in fines and restitution.

Though Morris was convicted, he also gained recognition for his pioneering work in developing the first Internet worm. Afterwards, he worked on various open source projects to repair the damage caused by the worm. Furthermore, he was hired by IBM and given a teaching position at MIT. During his career, Morris went on to write a number of influential papers on topics- such as computer viruses, distributed computing, and artificial intelligence- that would forever change computer science.

In many ways, Robert Morris is an iconic figure in history of Computer Science. He was both a criminal and a genius. His invention of the Morris Worm signaled the end of an "innocent" early-Internet age and gave way to modern protocols of network security. Moreover, his work on the Morris Worm spurred on further computer science research, and he's been credited with helping to shape the modern internet.

So was Robert Morris a criminal hacker or a pioneering programmer? To some, it may depend on which side of the law you are standing on. What we can agree upon, however, is that Morris' work was a pioneering in the world of computer science and Internet security, and it forever changed the world.

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