Word: spread
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Unlike almost any other virus written, the Cornell virus was not designed to destroy files, steal or change data, play pranks on the users, or even allow its creator to gain illegal access to the infected networks--its sole purpose was to spread itself to every machine it found...
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. Morris' virus was programmed...
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...
Morris had accidentally instructed the computer to infect every 10th adjacent computer on the Internet instead of every 10,000th, according to Jeffrey I. Schiller, M.I.T. network manager. As a result, the virus tried to spread too quickly and multiple copies of the virus were sent to the same machines, eventually using too much memory and computer time, causing the systems to crash...
...first, and most simple, of Morris' defenses, was that he released the virus at midnight, giving it a head start on the systems managers across the country who were home asleep when the virus began to spread...