What was the first computer virus?
Choose your answer and the correct choice will be revealed.
The first computer virus was named Creeper, created in 1971 by Robert Thomas, a programmer at BBN Technologies (Bolt Beranek and Newman Inc., which later became part of Raytheon).
Unlike the malicious viruses we often think of today, Creeper was designed as an experimental program to explore the concept of self-replicating software on the TENEX operating system. Thomas’s goal was not to cause harm but to push the boundaries of what software could do in the early days of computing.
Interestingly, Creeper did not replicate itself in the way modern viruses do. Instead, it exhibited curious behavior: it would display the message “I’m the Creeper: Catch me if you can” on infected machines, then delete itself from the current system as it traveled onward to the next system on the ARPANET (the precursor to the modern internet). This made Creeper more of a “self-propagating” program than a true virus by today’s standards.
In response to Creeper, another programmer at BBN, Ray Tomlinson (famous for inventing email), developed a program called Reaper in 1972. Reaper was designed to seek out and delete Creeper wherever it was found. While Reaper is sometimes considered the first antivirus software, it was essentially another experimental program created to address Creeper’s behavior.
While Creeper and Reaper were harmless experiments, they laid the groundwork for the concepts of computer viruses and cybersecurity, which would become critical in the decades that followed.
Fun fact: the Creeper virus is said to have been named after a villain from the original Scooby-Doo cartoons, adding a playful element to its legacy.
