Creeper (program)

Short description: First computer worm

CreeperType| Computer worm[1]

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Isolation| 1971
Author(s)| Bob Thomas
Operating system(s) affected| TENEX

Creeper was an experimental computer program written by Bob Thomas at BBN in 1971.[2] Its original iteration was designed to move between DEC PDP-10 mainframe computers running the TENEX operating system using the ARPANET, with a later version by Ray Tomlinson designed to copy itself between computers rather than simply move.[3] This self-replicating version of Creeper is generally accepted to be the first computer worm.[1][4]

The program was not actively malicious software as it caused no damage to data, the only effect being a message it output to the teletype reading "I'M THE CREEPER; CATCH ME IF YOU CAN".[4]

## Reaper

ReaperOriginal author(s)| Ray Tomlinson

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Initial release| 1972
Operating system| TENEX

Reaper was a similar program created by Ray Tomlinson to move across the ARPANET and delete the self-replicating Creeper.[3]

## Cultural impact

The conflict between Creeper and Reaper served as inspiration for the programming game Core War,[3] while fictionalized versions of Reaper have been used as antagonists in the anime Digimon Tamers[5] and the visual novel Digital.[6] A humanized Creeper has also appeared in the webcomic Internet Explorer, alongside the likewise personified Morris Worm.[7]

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 IEEE Annals of the History of Computing. Volumes 27–28. IEEE Computer Society. 2005. p. 74. https://books.google.com/books?id=xv9UAAAAMAAJ. "[...]from one machine to another led to experimentation with the Creeper program, which became the world's first computer virus: a computation that used the network to recreate itself on another node, and spread from node to node. The source code of creeper remains unknown."
2. ↑ Thomas Chen, Jean-Marc Robert (2004). "The Evolution of Viruses and Worms". http://ivanlef0u.fr/repo/madchat/vxdevl/papers/avers/statmethods2004.pdf.
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 John Metcalf (2014). "Core War: Creeper & Reaper". http://corewar.co.uk/creeper.htm.
4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 From the first email to the first YouTube video: a definitive internet history. Tom Meltzer and Sarah Phillips. The Guardian . 23 October 2009
5. ↑ "Chronicle, The Background Hsitory". http://www.konaka.com/alice6/tamers/chronicle-e.html.
6. ↑ Christine Love (February 2010). Digital: A Love Story. "*Blue Sky: When Mother realized the mistake it had made, *Reaper was created to combat the self-replicating mess it had created, and fabricated the story about a "creeper virus" in order to obfuscate the matter to human observers."
7. ↑ Merryweatherey (w), Princess Hinghoi (a). {{{title}}} Ep. 51: n/a ({{{date}}}),  retrieved on 2019-12-18

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