The first computer virus was just playing hide-and-seek

In 1971, a programmer named Bob Thomas wanted to see if a program could move itself from one computer to another over a network (ARPANET). He created Creeper, but unlike modern viruses, it had no bad intentions.

A Polite Visitor

When Creeper arrived on a computer, it didn't slow it down or lock your screen for ransom. It simply printed a message:

"I'M THE CREEPER: CATCH ME IF YOU CAN!" Once it finished showing the message, it would hop to the next computer and delete itself from the previous one. It was more of a "traveler" than an infection.

The World's First Antivirus

Even though Creeper was harmless, another programmer named Ray Tomlinson thought it would be fun to create a program to hunt it down. He wrote The Reaper.

• The Reaper was also a self-replicating program.
• Its only job was to find Creeper and delete it.
• This became the world's very first "antivirus" software.

In Short

The first virus was a scientific experiment to prove that code could "walk" across a network. It started as a friendly game of digital hide-and-seek, long before the era of hackers and cyber-crimes.