Word: computerizes
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Robert T. Morris Jr. '87-'88, the Cornell graduate student who authored a program which disabled thousands of mainframe computers throughout the nation, proved last week in a spectacular way that there are major security gaps in the country's computer systems.
The young computer wizard, who worked at Harvard's Aiken Computation Labs as late as this summer, also proved that current computer networks are designed so that one computer can easily be used to break through its own security.
Visiting Professor of Astrophysics Clifford Stoll, a computer security expert, estimated that Morris' Program--now known as the "Cornell virus"--caused $2 million in damage, both in the time the computers were down and the manpower expended eradicating the virus.
The FBI is currently conducting a full-scale investigation of whether Morris violated federal laws about computer security by setting loose his virus onto the nation's largest computer network, the Internet, which is also used by the Pentagon.
Since the virus spread 10 times faster thanMorris had intended, the experts said, computersbegan to slow down and lose memory becausemultiple copies of the program were trying tobreak into the same computer at the same time.