Robert Tappan Morris
| Robert Tappan Morris | |
|---|---|
Robert Morris in 2008
|
|
| Born |
Robert Tappan Morris, Jr. November 8, 1965 United States |
| Residence | United States |
| Nationality | American |
| Other names | RTM |
| Occupation | Professor, entrepreneur, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Partner, Y Combinator, |
| Known for |
Morris Worm, Viaweb, Y Combinator |
| Criminal penalty | 3 years of probation, 400 hours of community service, a fine of $10,050, and the costs of his supervision |
| Criminal status | Fulfilled |
| Parent(s) | Robert Morris, Anne Farlow Morris |
| Website | pdos |
| Motive | "To demonstrate the inadequacies of current security measures on computer networks by exploiting the security defects that Morris had discovered." |
| Conviction(s) | United States Code: Title 18 (18 U.S.C. § 1030, the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, March 7, 1991. |
Robert Tappan Morris (born November 8, 1965) is an American computer scientist and entrepreneur. He is best known for creating the Morris Worm in 1988, considered the first computer worm on the Internet.
Morris was prosecuted for releasing the worm, and became the first person convicted under the then-new Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. He went on to co-found the online store Viaweb, one of the first web-based applications, and later the funding firm Y Combinator—both with Paul Graham.
He later joined the faculty in the department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he received tenure in 2006.
Morris was born in 1965 to parents Robert Morris and Anne Farlow Morris. The senior Morris was a computer scientist at Bell Labs, who helped design Multics and Unix; and later became the chief scientist at the National Computer Security Center, a division of the National Security Agency (NSA).
He grew up in the Millington section of Long Hill Township, New Jersey and graduated from Delbarton School in 1983.
Morris attended Harvard University, and later went on to graduate school at Cornell. During his first year there, he designed a computer worm that disrupted many computers on what was then a fledgling internet. This led to him being indicted a year later.
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