In the course of writing a research paper on possible new methods to reduce and eradicate computer virus threats, I came across a bit of intriguing history whose available details did not satisfy my curiosity, and I needed to know more than what the internet had to offer. The event in question was the creation of Creeper, a piece of software created in 1971 by Bob Thomas that has since been commonly accepted as the world’s first computer virus. What Wikipedia and the rest of the internet will tell you is that Creeper was created to “infect” computers running the TENEX operating system on ARPAnet, the predecessor to the internet. It would cause the machine to print “I’M THE CREEPER. CATCH ME IF YOU CAN.” Then Ray Tomlinson created Reaper whose sole purpose was to seek out and remove Creeper from the machines it had “infected”– so all at once, the first virus (more accurately a worm, if that) and the first helpful worm were created. However, I’m beginning to think journalistic sensationalism has turned Creeper into something it’s not, especially by today’s standards– that is, malware. Regardless, this was all still interesting.
I wanted to know more, though. Why was Creeper created in the first place? Did it cause problems? Was it an annoyance? Should it really be considered the first virus? So I found contact information for Ray Tomlinson, asked him if I could ask a few questions about Creeper and Reaper, and he very kindly obliged. Below is an email Q&A session with Ray himself, and I think the details he reveals about this piece of history are very interesting and enlightening; they also cast it in an entirely different light. Also, Ray sent me a link before I asked him my questions that contained the best information I could thus far find online; this information helped me form some of these questions in a better way as it helped me realize that Creeper wasn’t a malevolent or even jovial practical joke as it is sometimes painted. The link he sent is available here.