Re: [TUHS] Happy birthday, Morris Worm!

Date: Sat, 5 Nov 88 10:57:11 PST From: kent(a)na-net.stanford.edu (Mark Kent) Message-Id: &lt;8811051857.AA02684(a)patience.stanford.edu&gt; To: src Subject: Isn't this... Isnt't this the Robert Morris who worked with Mark Manasse and Greg Nelson in the summer of 1987 (in my cubicle from summer 1986)? He did a X windows to <dec-src window system> interface amazingly fast, *without* using the tools in emacs that make writing M2+ programs easier (because he did it in vi). He knew a *lot* about sendmail then. -mark From: Martin Frost &lt;ME(a)sail.stanford.edu&gt; Subject: virus programmer Note the mention of passwords for some computers at Stanford. Creator Of Computer 'Virus' Is Cornell Student, Son Of Government Scientist Eds: News conference scheduled at 10 a.m. EST By DOUGLAS ROWE Associated Press Writer A Cornell University student whose father is a top government computer security expert created the ''virus'' that slowed 6,000 computers nationwide, said a report today, and the school found that the young man possessed unauthorized computer codes. Two sources with detailed knowledge of the case told The New York Times that Robert T. Morris Jr., 23, a computer science graduate student whom friends describe as ''brilliant,'' devised the virus as an experiment. M. Stuart Lynn, Cornell's vice president for information technologies, said early today that the university had not talked to Morris but was investigating his computer files. The Ithaca, N.Y., school scheduled a news conference for today. ''So far we have determined that his account contains files that appear to hold passwords for some computers at Cornell and Stanford to which he is not entitled,'' Lynn said in a statement. ''We also have discovered that Morris' account contains a list of passwords substantially similar to those found in the virus.'' Passwords are the codes needed to gain access to computer systems. The student's father, Robert Morris Sr., is chief scientist at the National Computer Security Center in Bethesda, Md., the arm of the National Security Agency devoted to protecting computers from outside attack. He has written widely on the security of the Unix operating system, the computer master program that was the target of the computer virus. Several telephone calls to the family's home in Silver Spring, Md., near Washington, went unanswered. Later, an answering machine was attached and messages left on it were not returned. The younger Morris also could not be reached. The university said it did not have a local address for him, and Lynn said college officials believed he was on his way to Washington. Computer viruses behave like biological viruses in that they duplicate themselves and spread from computer to computer, through ''electronic mail'' systems or other networks. They consume computer processing power and storage space, and some - but apparently not this one - destroy stored information. The virus was introduced into Arpanet, a Department of Defense computer network linking universities, research centers and defense operations, officials said. It was intended to remain there undetected, slowly making copies that would move from computer to computer, the Times said. But a design error caused it instead to replicate out of control, the Times reported Friday, quoting an anonymous caller to the newspaper who said he was an associate of the program's designer. The virus jammed more than 6,000 computers nationwide starting Wednesday. But it apparently caused no damage other than lost research time and the thousands of costly hours that computer scientists and programmers were spending to remove it from their systems. By Friday, most universities and research centers had turned their computers back on. George Strawn, director of the Computation Center at Iowa State University in Des Moines, described the impact of the virus at his school as ''a slight case of the sniffles.'' Doug Van Houweling, vice provost for information technology at the University of Michigan, said no files were damaged but many hours of work were needed to clean out ''duplicate waste files'' the virus created. Hans-Werner Braun, a computer expert at the Ann Arbor, Mich., school, said the main effect of the incident was to call attention to the system's vulnerability. The elder Morris told the Times that the virus ''has raised the public awareness to a considerable degree. It is likely to make people more careful and more attentive to vulnerabilities in the future.'' Sources told the Times that his son flew to Washington on Friday and planned to hire a lawyer and meet with officials in charge of the Arpanet network to discuss the incident. Computer scientists said the younger Morris worked in recent summers at the American Telephone and Telegraph Co.'s Bell Laboratories. One of his projects included rewriting the communications security software for most computers that run the Unix operating system, which AT&T developed, the Times reported. Computer scientists who are disassembling the virus to learn how it worked said they have been impressed with its power and cleverness. The elder Morris, 56, told the Times that it was ''the work of a bored graduate student.'' Dexter Kozen, the graduate faculty representative in Cornell's computer science department, said he chuckled when he heard that quote. ''We try to keep them from getting bored,'' he said. ''I guess we didn't try hard enough.'' ***************