Cookie Monster (computer program)

{{Short description|Computer prank or malware}}

{{About|the computer program, malware, and virus||Cookie Monster (disambiguation)}}

Cookie Monster was a program created in 1969 for several computer operating systems.{{cite web|last=Brandom|first=Russell|title=The Computer Virus Catalog|date=25 July 2014 |url=https://www.theverge.com/2014/7/25/5929647/the-computer-virus-catalog#cookie-monster-by-lawrence-slater|publisher=The Verge|accessdate=28 August 2018}} The program was named after an obnoxious cartoon bear advertising cereal, but later became associated with the Muppet Cookie Monster. It started out as a way for computer users at Brown University to annoy their fellow students by manually sending messages blocking computer processes and demanding cookies until the user of the ransomed computer typed “cookie”. Though it is often called a virus, it does not self-replicate and spread, and so is considered a proto-virus, or simply malware instead.{{cite web|last=Wentworth|first=Rob|title=Computer Virus!|url=http://uanr.com/articles/virus.html|work=The Digital Viking|publisher=Twin Cities PC User Group|accessdate=1 March 2012}} It is unrelated to the HTTP cookie.

When C.D. Tavares heard the idea at MIT, he decided to automate it. Since then, the program has been shared on different operating systems.{{cite web|last=Tavares|first=C.D.|title=Origin of the Cookie Monster|url=http://www.multicians.org/cookie.html|work=Multics|publisher=multicians.org|accessdate=1 March 2012}}

The automated program ran on PDP series minicomputers and was later replicated for Atari in two strains, called Cookie Monster Virus A and B. The only difference is that Virus B can survive a system reset if the system is not completely powered down.{{cite web|title=The Known Viruses On Atari And Their Symptoms|url=http://www.atari-forum.com/wiki/index.php?title=Listing_AVK|work=Listing AVK|publisher=atari-forum.com|accessdate=1 March 2012}} The Atari version has the same function as the original program, but this time pops up automatically in regular intervals, and sometimes appears ever more frequent as the program is "fed" more cookies. In order to remove the program completely, the user must type in "Oreo".{{cite web|last=Posey|first=Talainia|title=When viruses attack|url=http://www.techrepublic.com/article/when-viruses-attack/5031931?tag=content;siu-container|work=techrepublic.org|date=25 February 2000 |publisher=Tech Republic|accessdate=1 March 2012}} In one version of the program, the demand for cookies would flash on the screen ever more rapidly until it would suddenly stop and print “I didn’t want a cookie anyway,” and then desist.{{cite web|last=Fitzpatrick|first=Laura|title=The Biggest Pranks In Geek History|url=http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1839579_1839578_1839526,00.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081130133133/http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1839579_1839578_1839526,00.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=November 30, 2008|work=Time Specials|publisher=Time|accessdate=2 March 2012|date=2008-09-08}}

The program inspired the movie Hackers to include a fictitious "Cookie Monster Virus" that "ate" the system data of a Gibson supercomputer. It was stopped (presumably only temporarily) when the system administrator typed "cookie".