Creeper was the first

computer worm A computer worm is a standalone malware computer program that replicates itself in order to spread to other computers. It often uses a computer network to spread itself, relying on security failures on the target computer to access it. It will ...

, while Reaper was the first

antivirus Antivirus software (abbreviated to AV software), also known as anti-malware, is a computer program used to prevent, detect, and remove malware. Antivirus software was originally developed to detect and remove computer viruses, hence the name ...

software, designed to eliminate Creeper.

Creeper

Creeper was an experimental computer program written by Bob Thomas at BBN in 1971. Its original iteration was designed to move between DEC

PDP-10 Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC)'s PDP-10, later marketed as the DECsystem-10, is a mainframe computer family manufactured beginning in 1966 and discontinued in 1983. 1970s models and beyond were marketed under the DECsystem-10 name, especi ...

mainframe computer A mainframe computer, informally called a mainframe or big iron, is a computer used primarily by large organizations for critical applications like bulk data processing for tasks such as censuses, industry and consumer statistics, enterprise ...

s running the TENEX operating system using the

ARPANET The Advanced Research Projects Agency Network (ARPANET) was the first wide-area packet-switched network with distributed control and one of the first computer networks to implement the TCP/IP protocol suite. Both technologies became the tec ...

, with a later version by

Ray Tomlinson Raymond Samuel Tomlinson (April 23, 1941 – March 5, 2016) was an American computer scientist who implemented the first email program on the ARPANET system, the precursor to the Internet, in 1971; it was the first system able to send mail betw ...

designed to copy itself between computers rather than simply move. This self-replicating version of Creeper is generally accepted to be the first

. Creeper was a test created to demonstrate the possibility of a self-replicating computer program that could spread to other computers. The program was not actively

malicious software Malware (a portmanteau of ''malicious software'')Tahir, R. (2018)A study on malware and malware detection techniques . ''International Journal of Education and Management Engineering'', ''8''(2), 20. is any software intentionally designed to caus ...

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"From the first email to the first YouTube video: a definitive internet history
Tom Meltzer and Sarah Phillips. ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

''. 23 October 2009

Impact

Creeper had a minimal impact on the computers it infected. No more than 28 machines could have been infected, as that was the number of machines running the TENEX operating system on ARPANET. The operators of the machines were also collaborators in the project, and Tomlinson needed permission to run the program on their machines. In an interview, Tomlinson also stated that there were no unintended effects from running the program.

Reaper

Reaper was the first anti-virus software, designed to delete Creeper by moving across the

. It was created by Tomlinson in 1972.

Cultural impact

The conflict between Creeper and Reaper served as inspiration for the

programming game A programming game is a video game that incorporates elements of computer programming, enabling the player to direct otherwise autonomous units within the game to follow commands in a domain-specific programming language, often represented as a ...

Core War ''Core War'' is a programming game introduced in 1984 by D. G. Jones and A. K. Dewdney. In the game, two or more battle programs, known as ''warriors'', compete for control of a virtual computer. These programs are written in an abstract assem ...

'', while fictionalized versions of Reaper have been used as antagonists in the

anime is a Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, , in Japan and in Ja ...

Digimon Tamers is a Japanese anime television series and the third television series in the ''Digimon'' franchise, produced by Toei Animation. The series takes place in a new setting separate from the preceding series, '' Digimon Adventure'' and ''Digimon ...

'' and the

visual novel A visual novel (VN) is a form of digital interactive fiction. Visual novels are often associated with the medium of video games, but are not always labeled as such themselves. They combine a textual narrative with static or animated illustratio ...

'' Digital: A Love Story''. A humanized Creeper has also appeared in the

webcomic Webcomics (also known as online comics or Internet comics) are comics published on the internet, such as on a website or a mobile app. While many webcomics are published exclusively online, others are also published in magazines, newspapers, or ...

''Internet Explorer'', alongside the likewise personified

Morris Worm The Morris worm or Internet worm of November 2, 1988, is one of the oldest computer worms distributed via the Internet, and the first to gain significant mainstream media attention. It resulted in the first felony conviction in the US under the ...

References

{{- ARPANET Computer worms 1971 software