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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
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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
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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.
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designed to copy itself between computers rather than simply move. This self-replicating version of
Creeper is generally accepted to be the first
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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"
138:. Creeper was a test created to demonstrate the possibility of a self-replicating computer program that could spread to other computers.
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the program on their machines. In an interview, Tomlinson also stated that there were no unintended effects from running the program.
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was the first anti-virus software, designed to delete
Creeper by moving across the
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From the first email to the first YouTube video: a definitive internet history
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The conflict between
Creeper and Reaper served as inspiration for the
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372:"The History of the First Computer Virus on Windows, Mac, and Linux"
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was an experimental computer program written by Bob Thomas at
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in 1971. Its original iteration was designed to move between
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from one machine to another led to experimentation with the
279:. Vol. 27–28. IEEE Computer Society. 2005. p. 74.
400:"Interview with Ray Tomlinson on Creeper/Reaper – OSnews"
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243:. A humanized Creeper has also appeared in the
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55:software, designed to eliminate Creeper.
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276:IEEE Annals of the History of Computing
208:. It was created by Tomlinson in 1972.
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468:"Internet Explorer – Ep. 50 – Creeper"
297:Thomas Chen, Jean-Marc Robert (2004).
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250:, alongside the likewise personified
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299:"The Evolution of Viruses and Worms"
425:"Chronicle, The Background History"
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354:. Tom Meltzer and Sarah Phillips.
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36:Screenshot of a Creeper simulation
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27:First computer worm and antivirus
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329:"Core War: Creeper & Reaper"
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370:Sahay, Manish (January 2023).
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141:The program was not actively
512:. You can help Knowledge by
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508:-related article is a
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447:Digital: A Love Story
327:John Metcalf (2014).
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120:mainframe computers
169:Original author(s)
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66:Creeper and Reaper
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445:(February 2010).
360:. 23 October 2009
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429:konaka.com
409:17 January
258:References
126:using the
84:Bob Thomas
53:antivirus
477:1 August
245:webcomic
234:and the
222:Core War
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47:, while
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506:malware
381:16 June
307:31 July
283:Creeper
206:ARPANET
128:ARPANET
106:Creeper
81:Authors
59:Creeper
41:Creeper
202:Reaper
163:Reaper
158:Reaper
149:Impact
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49:Reaper
504:This
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302:(PDF)
227:anime
194:TENEX
98:TENEX
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479:2022
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336:2014
309:2019
183:1972
71:Type
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110:BBN
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