It’s hard to believe that computer viruses have been around nearly since the invention of the computer, and yet today marks the 40th birthday for the oldest one. Older than the internet, which is around 39 years old, the first computer virus was named the Creeper. It was a self-replicating program designed by Bob Thomas to do no damage, but to show his capabilities. Programmed to infect DEC PDP-10 computers running the TENEX operating system. It did this using a pre-internet packet switching network called ARPANET, and once infected the computers would display “I’m the creeper, catch me if you can!”. It’s hard to think that from then til now, there have been over 200 million other viruses spotted out there on the net.
DARPA
In my science research I have noted DARPA has had its hand in many innovations, and was only slightly surprised to see they had a big hand in the creation of the ARPANET. I find it interesting that a Department of Defense project in essence spawned the internet. I think all us geeks out there would gladly say thank you.
This post was written by...
Christopher Weaver – who has written 310 posts on allGeek.
Managing Editor for allGeek -- Things I enjoy: Bigger screens, video games, and cool gadgets -- an occasional canoeing trip is also nice.
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