1988

In November 1988, 23 years old Robert Tappan Morris, student at Cornell University and son of then chief security expert for the National Security Agency, wrote the first computer worm called Morris-worm.
This intruder quickly spread by using UNIX-services like sendmail, finger or rexec. According to Morris the worm was not intended to do any harm, however, due to its aggressive way of expanding, it paralyzed about 6.000 computers, which approximated 10% of the global network.
Robert Tappan Morris was not identified as the author of the Morris-worm until July 26, 1989. Half a year later he was convicted and sentenced to three years of probation,

400 hours of community service and a fine of 10,000 dollar. He further had to pay his law expenses of about 150.000 dollar. Today Robert Tappan Morris is professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
In response to the Morris-worm and in order to prevent or fight similar incidents, ARPA founded the Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT).