The Birth of the Computer Virus  The first computer virus was
created in 1982 by Rich Skrenta, who was 15 at the time and only
wanted a way to share computer games with friends. He wrote a
program called Elk Cloner that could be transferred from a
floppy disk to a computer hard drive, where it would lay in wait
for another floppy disk to be inserted.    Now when we say
Windows Vista blocks computer viruses, we are describing a
problem that most people did not imagine until 1982.   And
that's when a ninth grader named Rich Skrenta created what may
have been the first computer virus. He wrote a program that
would jump off a floppy disk onto the computer. The next time
somebody else slid a disk into the computer, the program jumped
right onboard.  INSKEEP: Mr. Skrenta did not intend to crash
computer systems. He did want his friends to get copies of his
pirated computer games. So 25 years ago now, he distributed the
virus he called Elk Cloner.  MONTAGNE: Every so often the
program would cause a poem to pop up on