Robert Tappan Morris - Revision history

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	\| other_names = RTM		\| other_names = RTM
	\| education = [[Harvard University]] ([[B. A.\|BA]])<br />[[Cornell University]] ([[Doctor of Philosophy\|PhD]])		\| education = [[Harvard University]] ([[B. A.\|BA]])<br />[[Cornell University]] ([[Doctor of Philosophy\|PhD]])
	\| occupation = [[Entrepreneur]], [[professor]] at [[Massachusetts Institute of Technology]], partner at ]]<ref name="Ycombinator">{{cite web \|url=http://www.ycombinator.com/people.html \|title=Y Combinator: Partners \|website=[[Y Combinator]] \|access-date=19 June 2011}}</ref>		\| occupation = [[Entrepreneur]], [[professor]] at [[Massachusetts Institute of Technology]], partner at [[Y Combinator]]<ref name="Ycombinator">{{cite web \|url=http://www.ycombinator.com/people.html \|title=Y Combinator: Partners \|website=[[Y Combinator]] \|access-date=19 June 2011}}</ref>
	\| known_for = [[Morris Worm]]<br/>[[Viaweb]]<br/>[[Y Combinator]]		\| known_for = [[Morris Worm]]<br/>[[Viaweb]]<br/>[[Y Combinator]]
	\| parents = [[Robert Morris (cryptographer)\|Robert Morris]], Anne Farlow Morris		\| parents = [[Robert Morris (cryptographer)\|Robert Morris]], Anne Farlow Morris
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	Morris was prosecuted for releasing the worm, and became the first person convicted under the then-new [[Computer Fraud and Abuse Act]] (CFAA).<ref name=usvmorris505/><ref>{{cite book \|last1=Denning \|first1=Dorothy Elizabeth Robling \|author-link=Dorothy E. Denning \|last2=Lin \|first2=Herbert S. \|title=Rights and responsibilities of participants in networked communities \|year=1994 \|publisher=National Academies Press \|isbn=978-0-309-05090-6 \|page=74 [https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780309050906/page/74 74] \|url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780309050906/page/74}}</ref>		Morris was prosecuted for releasing the worm, and became the first person convicted under the then-new [[Computer Fraud and Abuse Act]] (CFAA).<ref name=usvmorris505/><ref>{{cite book \|last1=Denning \|first1=Dorothy Elizabeth Robling \|author-link=Dorothy E. Denning \|last2=Lin \|first2=Herbert S. \|title=Rights and responsibilities of participants in networked communities \|year=1994 \|publisher=National Academies Press \|isbn=978-0-309-05090-6 \|page=74 [https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780309050906/page/74 74] \|url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780309050906/page/74}}</ref>
	He went on to ~~cofoun~~, 2020 \|url-status=live \|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080803094019/http://www.csail.mit.edu/biographies/PI/bioprint.php?PeopleID=301<!-- Bot retrieved archive --> \|archive-date=August 3, 2008}}</ref> He was elected to the [[National Academy of Engineering]] in 2019.		He went on to cofound the online store [[Viaweb]], one of the first [[web application]]s,<ref>{{Cite news \|url=https://www.historychannel.com.au/this-day-in-history/first-computer-worm-unleashed/ \|title=First Computer "Worm" Unleashed \|date=2016-06-20 \|work=History Channel \|access-date=2017-08-31 \|language=en-US}}</ref> and later the [[venture capital]] funding firm [[Y Combinator]], both with [[Paul Graham (programmer)\|Paul Graham]], [[Jessica Livingston]] and [[Trevor Blackwell]].

			He later joined the faculty in the department of [[Computer Science and Engineering\|Electrical Engineering and Computer Science]] at the [[Massachusetts Institute of Technology]] (MIT), where he received [[Tenure (academic)\|tenure]] in 2006.<ref name="csail">{{cite web \|author=<!-- Unstated --> \|date=October 30, 2017 \|url=https://www.csail.mit.edu/person/robert-morris \|title=Robert Morris: Professor \|website=Computer Science & Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) \|publisher=Massachusetts Institute of Technology \|access-date=April 10, 2020 \|url-status=live \|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080803094019/http://www.csail.mit.edu/biographies/PI/bioprint.php?PeopleID=301<!-- Bot retrieved archive --> \|archive-date=August 3, 2008}}</ref> He was elected to the [[National Academy of Engineering]] in 2019.

	== Early life and education ==		== Early life and education ==

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	[[Category:People convicted of cybercrime]]		[[Category:People convicted of cybercrime]]
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			[[Category:Hackers]]

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{{short description|American computer scientist; creator of Morris Worm; associate professor at MIT}}
{{other people|Robert Morris}}
{{Infobox criminal
| honorific_prefix = [[Professor]]
| name = Robert Tappan Morris
| honorific_suffix = [[Doctor of Philosophy|Ph.D.]]
| image = Robert Tappan Morris.jpg
| caption = Robert Morris in 2008
| birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1965|11|08}}
| birth_place = United States
| death_date = 
| death_place =
| other_names = RTM
| education = [[Harvard University ]] ([[Bachelor of Arts|BA]], [[Doctor of Philosophy|PhD]])
| occupation = [[Entrepreneur]], [[professor]] at [[Massachusetts Institute of Technology]], partner at [[Y Combinator]]<ref name="Ycombinator">{{cite web |url=http://www.ycombinator.com/people.html |title=Y Combinator: Partners |website=[[Y Combinator]] |access-date=19 June 2011}}</ref>
| known_for = [[Morris Worm]]<br/>[[Viaweb]]<br/>[[Y Combinator]]
| parents = [[Robert Morris (cryptographer)|Robert Morris]], Anne Farlow Morris
| relatives = 
| motive = "To demonstrate the inadequacies of current security measures on [[computer network]]s by exploiting the security defects that Morris had discovered."<ref name=usvmorris505/>
| conviction = [[United States Code]]: Title 18 ({{UnitedStatesCode|18|1030}}, the [[Computer Fraud and Abuse Act]] (CFAA), March 7, 1991)<ref name=usvmorris505/>
| website = {{URL|pdos.csail.mit.edu/rtm}}
| conviction_penalty = 3 years of [[probation]], 400 hours of [[community service]], and fines of $10,050 plus costs of his supervision<ref name=usvmorris505/>
| conviction_status = Fulfilled
}}

'''Robert Tappan Morris''' (born November 8, 1965) is an American [[computer scientist]] and [[entrepreneur]]. He is best known for creating the [[Morris worm]] in 1988,<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2013/11/01/how-a-grad-student-trying-to-build-the-first-botnet-brought-the-internet-to-its-knees/ |title=How a grad student trying to build the first botnet brought the Internet to its knees |last=Lee |first=Timothy B. |date=1 November 2013 |newspaper=[[The Washington Post]]}}</ref> considered the first [[computer worm]] on the [[Internet]].<ref name="morris-worm">{{cite web |last=Kehoe |first=Brendan P. |year=2007 |url=http://groups.csail.mit.edu/mac/classes/6.805/articles/morris-worm.html |title=The Robert Morris Internet Worm |website=Computer Science & Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) |publisher=Massachusetts Institute of Technology |access-date=August 23, 2008}}</ref>

Morris was prosecuted for releasing the worm, and became the first person convicted under the then-new [[Computer Fraud and Abuse Act]] (CFAA).<ref name=usvmorris505/><ref>{{cite book |last1=Denning |first1=Dorothy Elizabeth Robling |author-link=Dorothy E. Denning |last2=Lin |first2=Herbert S. |title=Rights and responsibilities of participants in networked communities |year=1994 |publisher=National Academies Press |isbn=978-0-309-05090-6 |page=74 [https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780309050906/page/74 74] |url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780309050906/page/74}}</ref>
He went on to cofound the online store [[Viaweb]], one of the first [[web application]]s,<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.historychannel.com.au/this-day-in-history/first-computer-worm-unleashed/ |title=First Computer "Worm" Unleashed |date=2016-06-20 |work=History Channel |access-date=2017-08-31 |language=en-US}}</ref> and later the [[venture capital]] funding firm [[Y Combinator]], both with [[Paul Graham (programmer)|Paul Graham]] and [[Trevor Blackwell]].

He later joined the faculty in the department of [[Computer Science and Engineering|Electrical Engineering and Computer Science]] at the [[Massachusetts Institute of Technology]] (MIT), where he received [[Tenure (academic)|tenure]] in 2006.<ref name="csail">{{cite web |author= |date=October 30, 2017 |url=https://www.csail.mit.edu/person/robert-morris |title=Robert Morris: Professor |website=Computer Science & Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) |publisher=Massachusetts Institute of Technology |access-date=April 10, 2020 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080803094019/http://www.csail.mit.edu/biographies/PI/bioprint.php?PeopleID=301 |archive-date=August 3, 2008}}</ref> He was elected to the [[National Academy of Engineering]] in 2019.

== Early life ==
Morris was born in 1965 to parents [[Robert Morris (cryptographer)|Robert Morris]] and Anne Farlow Morris. The senior Robert Morris was a computer scientist at [[Bell Labs]], who helped design [[Multics]] and [[Unix]]; and later became the chief scientist at the [[National Computer Security Center]], a division of the [[National Security Agency]] (NSA).

Morris grew up in the [[Millington, New Jersey|Millington]] section of [[Long Hill Township, New Jersey]],<ref>{{cite web |last=Sullivan |first=Frank |url=https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/97115172/ |title=Former resident convicted of creating computer 'worm' |website=Echoes-Sentinel |location=Warren Township, New Jersey |publisher=Newspapers.com |date=February 1, 1990 |access-date=May 19, 2016 |quote=Former township resident Robert Tappan Morris Jr. was convicted last week of federal computer tampering charges for creating a 'worm' that penetrated and crippled 6,000 computers nationwide. Morris, 24, who grew up on Old Mill Road in Millington and now lives with his parents in Maryland, was suspended for a year from Cornell University graduate school after he was charged with the crime.}}</ref> attended [[The Peck School]],<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1988-11-12-mn-687-story.html | title=Hackers and Viruses : Computers Stumped by Ethics Code | website=[[Los Angeles Times]] | date=12 November 1988 }}</ref> and graduated from [[Delbarton School]] in 1983.<ref name=CW1988/>

Morris attended [[Harvard University]], and later went on to graduate school at [[Cornell University]]. During his first year there, he designed a [[computer worm]] (see below) that disrupted many computers on what was then a fledgling internet. This led to him being indicted a year later.

After serving his conviction term, he returned to Harvard to complete his [[Doctor of Philosophy]] (Ph.D.) under the supervision of [[H. T. Kung]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Shapiro |first=Scott |author-link=Scott J. Shapiro |title=Fancy Bear Goes Phishing: The dark history of the information age, in five extraordinary hacks |date=2023 |publisher=[[Farrar, Straus and Giroux]] |isbn=978-0-374-60117-1 |edition=1st |location=New York |pages=76–77}}</ref> He finished in 1999.

== Morris worm ==
{{Main|Morris worm}}
Morris's [[computer worm]] was developed in 1988, while he was a graduate student at [[Cornell University]].<ref name="US v. Morris, 928 F. 2d 504">{{cite web |url=https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=551386241451639668 |title=US v. Morris, 928 F. 2d 504 – Court of Appeals, 2nd Circuit 1991 |work=US v. Morris, 928 F. 2d 504}}</ref> He released the worm from MIT, rather than from Cornell.<ref name="US v. Morris, 928 F. 2d 504"/> The worm exploited several vulnerabilities to gain entry to targeted systems, including:
* A hole in the debug mode of the [[Unix]] ''[[sendmail]]'' program
* A [[buffer overflow]] or overrun hole in the ''[[fingerd]]'' network service
* The transitive trust enabled by people setting up network [[login]]s with no [[password]] requirements via ''[[Berkeley r-commands|remote execution]]'' (rexec) with ''[[Remote Shell]]'' (rsh), termed ''rexec/rsh''

The worm was programmed to check each computer it found to determine if the infection was already present. However, Morris believed that some [[system administrator]]s might try to defeat the worm by instructing the computer to report a [[False positives and false negatives|false positive]]. To compensate for this possibility, Morris programmed the worm to copy itself anyway, 14% of the time, no matter what the response was to the infection-status interrogation.

This level of persistence was a design flaw: it created system loads that brought it to the attention of administrators, and disrupted the target computers. During the ensuing trial, it was estimated that the cost in "potential loss in productivity" caused by the worm and efforts to remove it from individual system ranged from $200 to $53,000 per system, representing a total economic impact of up to $10,000,000.<ref name="US v. Morris, 928 F. 2d 504"/>

=== Criminal prosecution ===
In 1989, Morris was indicted for violating [[United States Code]] Title 18 ({{UnitedStatesCode|18|1030}}), the [[Computer Fraud and Abuse Act]] (CFAA).<ref name=usvmorris505>{{cite court |litigants=United States v. Morris (1991) |vol=928 |reporter=F.2d |opinion=504 |pinpoint=505 |court=2d Cir. |date=1991 |url=https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=551386241451639668}}</ref> He was the first person to be indicted under this act. In December 1990, he was sentenced to three years of probation, 400 hours of community service, and a fine of $10,050 plus the costs of his supervision. He appealed, but his conviction was affirmed the following March.<ref name="morris-worm"/> Morris's stated motive during the trial was "to demonstrate the inadequacies of current security measures on computer networks by exploiting the security defects [he] had discovered."<ref name=usvmorris505/> He completed his sentence as of 1994.

== Later life and work ==
Morris's principal research interest is computer network architectures which includes work on [[distributed hash table]]s such as [[Chord (peer-to-peer)|Chord]] and wireless [[mesh networks]] such as [[Roofnet]].

He is a longtime friend and collaborator of [[Paul Graham (programmer)|Paul Graham]]. Along with cofounding two companies with him, Graham dedicated his book ''ANSI Common Lisp'' to Morris and named the [[programming language]] that generates the online stores' web pages [[RTML]] (Robert T. Morris Language) in his honor. Graham lists Morris as one of his personal heroes, saying that Morris is "never wrong."<ref>{{cite web |last=Graham |first=Paul |author-link=Paul Graham (programmer) |title=Some Heroes |url=http://www.paulgraham.com/heroes.html |website=Paul Graham |access-date=18 January 2013 |date=April 2008}}</ref>

=== Timeline ===
*1983 – Graduated from [[Delbarton School]] in [[Morristown, New Jersey]]<ref name=CW1988>{{cite web |last=Daly |first=James |url=http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9129344/Portrait_of_an_artist_as_a_young_hacker |title=Portrait of an artist as a young hacker |website=[[Computerworld]] |date=November 14, 1988 |access-date=February 15, 2011 |quote=Draves added that Morris said he enjoyed cracking passwords as a student at the Delbarton School, an exclusive private high school in Morristown, NJ 'But I thought he'd given up on that,' Draves said.}}</ref>
*1987 – Received his [[Bachelor of Arts]] (B.A.) from [[Harvard University]]
*1988 – Released the [[Morris worm]] (when he was a graduate student at [[Cornell University]])
*1989 – Indicted under the [[Computer Fraud and Abuse Act]] (CFAA) of 1986 on July 26, 1989; the first person to be indicted under the Act
*1990 – Convicted in [[United States v. Morris (1991)|''United States v. Morris'']]<ref name=usvmorris505/>
*1995 – Cofounded [[Viaweb]], a start-up company that made software for building online stores (with [[Paul Graham (programmer)|Paul Graham]])
*1998 – Viaweb sold for $49 million<ref name=Cnet>{{cite web |date=June 8, 1998 |last=Weston |first=Randy |title=Yahoo buys Viaweb for $49 million |website=CNET |publisher=CBS Interactive |url=https://www.cnet.com/news/yahoo-buys-viaweb-for-49-million/ |access-date=April 10, 2020}}</ref> to [[Yahoo]], which renamed the software ''Yahoo! Store''
*1999 – Received Ph.D. in Applied Sciences from Harvard for thesis titled ''Scalable TCP Congestion Control''
*1999 – Appointed as an [[assistant professor]] at MIT
*2005 – Cofounded [[Y Combinator]], a seed-stage [[Startup company|startup]] [[venture capital]] funding firm that provides seed money, advice, and connections at two 3-month programs per year (with [[Paul Graham (programmer)|Paul Graham]], [[Trevor Blackwell]], and [[Jessica Livingston]])
*2006 – Awarded [[tenure]] at MIT<ref name="mit">{{cite web |date=October 25, 2006 |url=http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2006/tenure-1025.html |title=23 faculty members awarded tenure |website=Massachusetts Institute of Technology |access-date=August 23, 2008}}</ref>
*2006 – Technical advisor for [[Cisco Meraki]]<ref name="meraki">{{cite web |year=2007 |url=https://meraki.cisco.com/company/about |title=About Meraki |publisher=[[Cisco Meraki]] |access-date=August 23, 2008 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080908063217/http://www.meraki.com/about/ |archive-date=September 8, 2008}}</ref>
*2008 – Released the [[programming language]] [[Arc (programming language)|Arc]], a [[Lisp (programming language)|Lisp]] [[Dialect (computing)|dialect]] (with Paul Graham)
*2010 – Awarded the 2010 Special Interest Group in Operating Systems (SIGOPS) [[Mark Weiser]] award<ref name="mark-weiser-award">{{cite web |author= |year=2010 |url=http://www.sigops.org/awards/mw/ |title=Mark Weiser Award |website=SIGOPS |publisher=[[Association for Computing Machinery]] (ACM)}}</ref>
*2015 – Elected a Fellow of [[Association for Computing Machinery]] (ACM, 2014) for ''"contributions to [[computer network]]ing, [[Distributed computing|distributed systems]], and [[operating system]]s."''<ref>{{cite web |author= |url=https://awards.acm.org/award_winners/morris_4169967.cfm |title=Robert Morris |website=ACM Awards |publisher=[[Association for Computing Machinery]] (ACM)}}</ref>
*2019 – Elected to [[National Academy of Engineering]]<ref>{{cite web | url = https://www.nae.edu/19579/31222/20095/203308/204037/National-Academy-of-Engineering-Elects-86-Members-and-18-Foreign-Members | title = National Academy of Engineering Elects 86 Members and 18 Foreign Members | date = 7 February 2019 | access-date = 19 November 2024 | publisher = [[National Academy of Engineering|NAE]]}}</ref>

== See also ==
* [[List of convicted computer criminals]]

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

== Further reading ==
{{refbegin}}
*{{cite web |author= |url=https://www.hackerscrackersandthieves.com/robert-tappan-morris-the-morris-worm/ |title=Robert Tappan Morris – The Morris Worm |website=Hackers, Crackers and Thieves |date=2 June 2019 |access-date=2020-04-10}}
* {{cite book |last1=Hafner |first1=Katie |author-link=Katie Hafner |last2=Markoff |first2=John |author-link2=John Markoff |year=1991 |title=Cyberpunk: Outlaws and Hackers on the Computer Frontier |url=https://archive.org/details/cyberpunk00kati |location=New York |publisher=[[Simon & Schuster]] |isbn=0-671-68322-5}}
* [http://www.ee.ryerson.ca/~elf/hack/iworm.html A Report on the Internet Worm]
* {{cite journal |url=https://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dga/15-712/F13/papers//Spafford89.pdf |title=The Internet Worm—Crisis and Aftermath |last=Spafford |first=Eugene H. |author-link=Gene Spafford |journal=Communications of the ACM |publisher=[[Association for Computing Machinery]] (ACM) |date=June 1989 |volume=32 |issue=6 |pages=678–687 |issn=0001-0782 |doi=10.1145/63526.63527|s2cid=7267857 }}
{{refend}}

== External links ==
* {{Official website|pdos.csail.mit.edu/~rtm}}, at MIT

{{Lisp programming language}}
{{Y Combinator}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Morris, Robert Tappan}}
[[Category:1965 births]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:American computer programmers]]
[[Category:Computer systems researchers]]
[[Category:Cornell University alumni]]
[[Category:Place of birth missing (living people)]]
[[Category:Delbarton School alumni]]
[[Category:MIT School of Engineering faculty]]
[[Category:American computer security academics]]
[[Category:American cybercriminals]]
[[Category:American technology company founders]]
[[Category:People from Long Hill Township, New Jersey]]
[[Category:Lisp (programming language) people]]
[[Category:American computer businesspeople]]
[[Category:Y Combinator people]]
[[Category:Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences alumni]]
[[Category:People convicted of cybercrime]]
[[Category:People charged with computer fraud]]