Image via Wikipedia In 1971, Bob Thomas of Bolt, Beranek and
Newman Technologies, now BBN, wrote an experimental self-
replicating program titled Creeper, to demonstrate a mobile
application. Even though the term computer virus did not exist
in that decade, Creeper was the first computer virus. It used
the ARPANET to infect the Digital Equipment Corporation’s
PDP-10, a mainframe computer that was the precursor to the
Internet, running the TENEX operating system. The Creeper worm
copied itself to the remote system. Although the Creeper seldom
replicated itself, it did start to print a file and then stop.
It would find another TENEX system, open a connection, pick
itself up, and transfer it to the other machine, each time
displaying the message, “I’m the creeper, catch me if you can!”
It jumped from one machine to another trying to remove itself
from the previous machine. Therefore, it never installed itself
on targets, but worked its way around a network. To delete the
Creeper worm, programmers created The Reap