This week in 1988, Robert Morris unleashed his eponymous worm
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This week in 1988, Robert Morris unleashed his eponymous worm
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Re: This week in 1988, Robert Morris unleashed his eponymous worm
#2Wikipedia says the Morris worm went out on 1998 Nov 2. No idea why they would publish the article on 2025 Nov 4 with that title.
Re: This week in 1988, Robert Morris unleashed his eponymous worm
#3I find it funny that:
1) He released it from MIT to avoid suspicion.
2) After he was convicted, he went from Cornell to Harvard to complete his Ph.D.
3) He became an assistant professor at MIT after that.
He had to be really spectacular/have crazy connections to still be able to finish his training at a top program and get a job at the institution he tried to frame.
Re: This week in 1988, Robert Morris unleashed his eponymous worm
#4Wikipedia says the Morris worm went out on 1998 Nov 2. No idea why they would publish the article on 2025 Nov 4 with that title.
Re: This week in 1988, Robert Morris unleashed his eponymous worm
#5From the Wikipedia article:
Clifford Stoll, author of The Cuckoo's Egg, wrote that "Rumors have it that [Morris] worked with a friend or two at Harvard's computing department (Harvard student Paul Graham sent him mail asking for 'Any news on the brilliant project')".
Has pg commented on this?
Re: This week in 1988, Robert Morris unleashed his eponymous worm
#6It's a little shocking to me that there haven't been more things like this.
While we're much more conscientious and better at security than we were way back then, things are certainly not totally secure.
The best answer I have is the same as what a bio professor told me once about designer plagues: it hasn't happened because nobody's done it. The capability is out there, and the vulnerability is out there.
(Someone will chime in about COVID lab leak theories, but even if that's true that's not what I mean. If that happened it was the worst industrial accident in history, not an intentional designer plague.)
Re: This week in 1988, Robert Morris unleashed his eponymous worm
#7>However, the pioneering Morris worm malware wasn’t made with malice, says an FBI retrospective on the “programming error.” It was designed to gauge the size of the Internet, resulting in a classic case of unintended consequences.
had RTM actually RTM the world might be a bit different than it is today.
Re: This week in 1988, Robert Morris unleashed his eponymous worm
#8I find it funny that: 1) He released it from MIT to avoid suspicion. 2) After he was convicted, he went from Cornell to Harvard to complete his Ph.D. 3) He became an assistant professor at MIT after that. He had to be really spectacular/have crazy connections to still be able to finish his training at a top program and get a job at the institution he tried to frame.
You know his dad ran research at the NSA right?
His dad's also a badass and super fun to talk to. Never talked to the son though, but I'd love to some day.
Re: This week in 1988, Robert Morris unleashed his eponymous worm
#9That was one scary exciting day (source: was running machines at MIT at the time)
Re: This week in 1988, Robert Morris unleashed his eponymous worm
#10I remember that the Boston Museum of Science used to have a floppy disk on display with the Morris worm on it.