Virus History:
A computer virus is a type of malware that, when
executed, replicates by inserting copies of itself into other computer programs,
data files, or the boot sector of the hard drive; when this replication
succeeds, the affected areas are then said to be "infected".
Creeper was the first self-replicating program created in ARPANET (forerunner of the Internet). Creeper was an experimental self-replicating program written by Bob Thomas at BBN Technologies in 1971. Creeper gained access via the ARPANET and copied itself to the remote system where the message, "I'm the creeper, catch me if you can!" was displayed, in response to this program Reaper was created to delete Creeper. It was self replicating program but it was not malicious, so it is not considered as a virus.
Elk Cloner is one of the first known microcomputer
viruses that spread outside the computer system or laboratory in which it was
written. It attached itself to the Apple II operating system and
spread by floppy disk. It was written around 1982 by a 15-year-old high school
student, Rich Skrenta. It was originally a joke, created and put onto a game
disk.
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| elk cloner in apple II operating system |
Brain is the industry standard name for a computer
virus that was released in its first form in January 1986, and is considered to
be the first computer virus for MS-DOS (first PC virus). It infects the boot
sector of storage media formatted with the DOS File Allocation Table (FAT) file
system. Brain was written by two brothers, Basit Farooq Alvi and Amjad Farooq
Alvi, from Lahore, Pakistan.
