"I've met Robert. He's a nice guy, and he's a really brilliant professor," says , chief science officer at Sendmail and author of the sendmail Internet e-mail routing software that Morris exploited with his worm. "He tries to keep a low profile. I do feel kind of sorry for the guy."

Twenty years ago, however, many in the Internet engineering community wanted to see him punished after the worm he wrote caused around 10% of all Internet-connected systems to be knocked off the network.

"It was interesting to see how people viewed Morris," says , an Internet security expert who worked at Bell Labs when the Morris Worm attack occurred and is now a professor of computer science at Columbia University. "Some people who were really angered with Morris wanted stern retribution. Others said it was a stupid mistake and that he should not be barred from the profession."

Ultimately, Morris to three years of probation, ordered to pay a US$10,000 fine and to perform 400 hours of community service for his violation of the federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act of 1986. 

"I don't think anybody ever thought that Mr. Morris had malice in his heart," says , a computer science professor at Purdue University and executive director of Purdue's Center for Education and Research in Information Assurance and Security. "But he did intend his worm to spread, and he did intend it to have unauthorized access. . . . There is no question that it was wrong."