Article: birth of the computer virus.(Business)

The story goes here ... By Anick Jesdanun

The Associated Press

NEW YORK

What began as a ninth-grade prank, a way to trick already-suspicious friends who had fallen for his earlier practical jokes, has earned Rich Skrenta notoriety as the first person ever to let loose a personal computer virus.

Over the next 25 years, Skrenta started the online news business Topix, helped launch a collaborative Web directory now owned by Time Warner's Netscape, and wrote countless other computer programs, but he is still remembered most for unleashing the "Elk Cloner" virus on the world.

"It was some dumb little practical joke," Skrenta, now ...

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