The Morris worm of 1988 gained notoriety as the inaugural computer worm to propagate across the Internet, earning its creator, Robert Tappan Morris, a place in legal history. Released during his initial year of graduate study at Cornell, the program caused significant system disruption and led to the first conviction under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.
Early Background and Education
Born in 1965 in Massachusetts, Morris is the son of Robert Morris and Anne Farlow Morris. His father, a computer scientist at Bell Labs, contributed to the design of Unix and Multics. Morris spent his youth in the Millington section of Long Hill Township, New Jersey, attending The Peck School before graduating from Delbarton School in 1983. He subsequently pursued higher education at Harvard University and Cornell University, while also holding affiliations with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
The 1988 Worm and Legal Proceedings
The 1988 worm utilized vulnerabilities in Unix sendmail, the fingerd network service, and rexec/rsh configurations to breach systems. Morris launched the code from MIT to distance the activity from his Cornell studies. A design flaw intended to counter system administrator interference caused excessive load, resulting in an estimated economic impact of up to $10,000,000. In 1989, he was indicted under 18 U.S.C. § 1030, eventually receiving a sentence of three years of probation, 400 hours of community service, and a $10,050 fine. The conviction was affirmed in 1991, and he completed his sentence by 1994.
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Following his legal challenges, Morris finished his Ph.D. at Harvard, focusing on Scalable TCP Congestion Control. He cofounded Viaweb in 1995 with Paul Graham, Jessica Livingston, and Trevor Blackwell; the software was later sold to Yahoo for $49 million. In 1999, he joined the faculty at MIT, receiving tenure in 2006. Alongside his academic duties, he cofounded the venture capital firm Y Combinator in 2005 and released the Lisp-dialect programming language Arc in 2008.
Professional Recognition
Morris specializes in computer network architectures, including wireless mesh networks like Roofnet and distributed hash tables such as Chord. His contributions to the field have been acknowledged through various honors, including the 2010 Mark Weiser Award and his election as an ACM Fellow in 2014. In 2019, he was elected to the National Academy of Engineering.
Fast facts
- Born: 1965, Massachusetts
- Educated: Harvard University, Cornell University, Delbarton School
- Known for: Morris worm (1988)
- First conviction under: Computer Fraud and Abuse Act
- Cofounded: Viaweb, Y Combinator
- Employer: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- Notable Awards: Mark Weiser Award (2010), ACM Fellow (2014)
- Professional membership: Association for Computing Machinery
Questions readers ask
What was the primary motive for creating the Morris worm?
Morris stated during his trial that he intended to expose the inadequacies of then-current security measures on computer networks.
How did the worm inadvertently disrupt computer systems?
The worm was designed to replicate itself 14% of the time even when a system was already infected, creating excessive load that caused system instability.
Did Robert Tappan Morris and Paul Graham collaborate on multiple projects?
Yes, they cofounded Viaweb and Y Combinator, and co-developed the programming language Arc.
Achievements
- Affiliated with Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- Educated at Harvard University, Cornell University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- Worked as computer scientist and professor
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