The Christmas Virus
The Christmas Virus: A Historical Computer Worm If you're asking about "the Christmas virus," it likely refers to the infamous Christmas Tree EXEC worm from 1987, one of the earliest widespread computer worms that disrupted global networks during the holiday season. Created anonymously by a student at Clausthal University of Technology, this REXX script targeted IBM VM/CMS systems on mainframes. History and Spread The worm emerged in December 1987, spreading via IBM's internal VNET, BITNET, and the European Academic Research Network (EARN). It masqueraded as a harmless Christmas greeting executable. Once run, it accessed the user's address book (CMS NAMES files) and emailed copies to all contacts using the SENDFILE command. Recipients, curious about the "Christmas card," executed it, perpetuating the cycle. This self-replication overwhelmed networks, marking it as the first wide-area network (WAN) virus. Effects Upon activation, it displayed a sim...