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Computer Virus

Creeper:
The
World’s
First
Comput
er Virus
Information Security

   

Published Author Reading

January 01, Tim time
2022 Matthews 4 mins

At Exabeam, as people who live

and breathe cybersecurity,
we’re naturally fascinated by its
history. This is the third in a
series of posts featuring
information about interesting
historical events in
cybersecurity. The first in the
series examines Operation
Aurora and the series of 2010
cyberattacks by the Chinese
Elderwood Group, which has
ties to the People’s Liberation
Army. The second post delves
into the origins of SSL and web
security. If you think we missed
an important fact (or didn’t get
something quite right), please
share your feedback with us on
Twitter.

What was the first computer virus?

The idea of a computer virus preceded

computer networks. German
mathematician and father of game
theory John von Neumann first
theorized the concept in the late 1940s.
He envisioned a computer virus as an
automatically self-replicating entity. But
it was another 30 years before someone
created one.

Jeepers Creepers – it’s a worm!

An experimental computer network,

ARPANET, was created in 1969 and was
the precursor to the internet. It was
designed to send communications from
computer to computer over long
distances, without the need for a
dedicated phone connection between
each computer. To achieve this required
a method of dividing and sending data
that is now known as packet switching.
It’s few early users were mostly
computer scientists. Imagine
theirsurprise when one day in 1971,
connected teletype computer screens
displayed the phrase: “I’m the creeper,
catch me if you can!”

Although they didn’t know it at the time,

they were the first computer virus
victims. But what did the mysterious
message mean, and who sent it?

It turns out it wasn’t a hacker who coded

the first computer virus, and it wasn’t
sent with malicious intent. Bold,
Beranek, and Newman* (now Raytheon
BBN Technologies) were pioneers in
packet switching networks like
ARPANET and the internet. One of its
researchers, Bob Thomas, had created
Creeper as an experimental computer
program.

Creeper was a worm — a type of

computer virus that replicates itself and
spreads to other systems. In this case,
its targets were Digital Equipment
Corporation (DEC) computers which
were linked to ARPANET.

But it wasn’t malware like we associate

with today’s computer viruses;
displaying its enigmatic message was all
Creeper did. It didn’t encrypt files,
demand a ransom, destroy data, steal
Social Security numbers, or render
centrifuges inoperable. It only displayed
its taunting challenge.

Its creator had simply wanted to create

an experimental, self-duplicating
program to illustrate that it was possible.
Doing so primarily out of scientific
curiosity, he had fun in naming it as well
— Creeper was a mysterious ghoulish
green bank robber on the popular ’70s
cartoon show, “Scooby-Doo.”

So, Creeper was the first computer

virus, but it certainly wasn’t the last  — as
we all know. Following Creeper, which
was isolated within the realm of
researchers, Elk Cloner was the first
personal computer virus to be detected
in the wild. Written in 1982 by a 15-year-
old high school student named Richard
Skrenta, it was a boot sector virus that
infected Apple II computers. It spread
by way of a then-state-of-the-art,
removable storage technology — the
floppy disk — to become the first major
computer virus outbreak. It was not
deliberately harmful, but it did damage
some disks and otherwise cause
annoyance by displaying the following
poem on infected computers every 50th
boot:

ELK CLONER:

THE PROGRAM WITH A

PERSONALITY

IT WILL GET ON ALL YOUR DISKS

IT WILL INFILTRATE YOUR CHIPS

YES, IT’S CLONER!

IT WILL STICK TO YOU LIKE GLUE

IT WILL MODIFY RAM TOO

SEND IN THE CLONER!

Today, we continue to deal with the

pesky and often highly destructive
effects of increasingly powerful
computer viruses.

Consider yourself a cybersecurity

history buff? Share your feedback with
us on Twitter.

* Internet trivia: on April 24, 1985,

BBN.com became the second registered
domain name.

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