The Morris worm, the first Internet-distributed computer worm to gain significant mainstream media attention, is launched from MIT.

The Morris worm or Internet worm of November 2, 1988, was one of the oldest computer worms distributed via the Internet, and the first to gain significant mainstream media attention. It also resulted in the first felony conviction in the US under the 1986 Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. It was written by a graduate student at Cornell University, Robert Tappan Morris, and launched on November 2, 1988, from the computer systems of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.