Friday, July 01, 2011
RIP Unix: Robert Morris, a developer of Unix, dies at 78
Today, Unix-based operating systems can be found on millions of Apple iPhones and iPads.
As chief scientist with the NSA's National Computer Security Center
Mr. Morris was the digital gatekeeper of the American government’s computer secrets.
He had complications from dementia.
In 1983, Mr. Morris testified at a House committee hearing on the nascent phenomenon of computer viruses:
“The notion that we are raising a generation of children so technically sophisticated that they can outwit the best efforts of the security specialists of America’s largest corporations and the military is utter nonsense,” Mr. Morris said.
He had apparently underestimated his own son, Robert T. Morris.
Five years later, the younger Morris infected 6,000 computers connected to the Defense Department’s Internet with a program that paralyzed the machines’ activity with something later to be called in hacker jargon email-worm. The younger Morris case was investigated by the FBI, and the younger Morris was convicted under a federal computer crime law. He was sentenced to probation and fined $10,000. He is now a computer science professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
As chief scientist with the NSA's National Computer Security Center
Mr. Morris was the digital gatekeeper of the American government’s computer secrets.
He had complications from dementia.
In 1983, Mr. Morris testified at a House committee hearing on the nascent phenomenon of computer viruses:
“The notion that we are raising a generation of children so technically sophisticated that they can outwit the best efforts of the security specialists of America’s largest corporations and the military is utter nonsense,” Mr. Morris said.
He had apparently underestimated his own son, Robert T. Morris.
Five years later, the younger Morris infected 6,000 computers connected to the Defense Department’s Internet with a program that paralyzed the machines’ activity with something later to be called in hacker jargon email-worm. The younger Morris case was investigated by the FBI, and the younger Morris was convicted under a federal computer crime law. He was sentenced to probation and fined $10,000. He is now a computer science professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
THIS LINK posted by Joseph Bell : 1:35 PM
