terms "worm, virus, infect" (Was: Re: KLEZ)

[Fred Shapiro]

On Tue, 20 Aug 2002, Jesse Sheidlower wrote:

> the early 1970s (and is also in _Shockwave Rider_), and _infect_
> doesn't seem to have been researched yet but we have some
> mid-1980s cites sitting around.

The earliest I see on Nexis for _infect_ in this sense is the following:

1985 _Computerworld_ 16 Dec. [article beginning on page 35] (Nexis)  The
Data Physician software is said to locate and help remove "worms" -- bits
of self-replicating code written with mischievous intent and capable of
infecting and destroying everything on a disk or even on a network.


Fred Shapiro


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