In 1971, Bob Thomas, a computer researcher in Cambridge, Massachusetts, created a test program that he called Creeper. His aim was to prove the theory first proposed by legendary mathematician John von Neumann that a program could self-replicate.
Thomas released the Creeper worm into the US Department of Defense’s ARPANET’s network (the forerunner of the internet) and it quickly spread leaving the benign message “I’m the creeper, catch me if you can!” wherever it appeared. Thomas had created the world’s first computer virus.
