On this day in history … the birth of the network worm

This day in 1988 saw the birth of the network worm. The Morris worm was launched on 2 November 1988 and quickly spread across the 6,000+ vulnerable computers then connected to the Internet.

Today we take it for granted that security is of prime importance to anyone managing a system connected to the Internet and it’s hard to imagine a time when this was not the case. The Morris worm was one of the first incidents to highlight the need for security in general and the importance of patching vulnerable systems in particular.