Word: computerizes
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Stoll noted that the Cornell virus was the first true virus--a program with the ability to spread itself from computer to computer completely independently--ever released. Previous viruses depended on users taking certain steps, such as running a particular file or sending electronic mail, to allow them to spread...
After a series of interviews with experts on computers and computer security, it appears that the virus spread itself in a three-step process, which transformed an innocent computer into one that could infect others--like a chain-letter scheme run on the most advanced circuitry.
To move from system to system, the virus took advantage of the extensive computer links in the Internet, which connects about 60,000 mainframes throughout the nation, including educational, commercial, and military systems.
An infected host computer first sent a short message through "electronic mail" over the Internet to the target computer. By using a number of tricks, Morris' program made the target machine treat the message as a command program instead of ordinary mail, which the computer places into a file to...
The second stage of the virus then reserved a section of memory in the target computer as its workspace and began guessing passwords for user accounts on the target system.