Rich Skrenta

Rich Skrenta (born 1967 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) is an American computer scientist, entrepreneur and inventor.

Life

Skrenta is considered the inventor of the first computer virus. In 1982, he wrote at age 16, when he visited the Mt Lebanon High School, the world's first computer virus Elk Cloner. After leaving school, he studied at Northwestern University computer science. Skrenta is the founder of the Open Directory Project. In 2007 he founded the company Blekko, which operates the search engine Blekko.