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Evolution of Computer Viruses

The document summarizes the history of computer viruses. It discusses the first viruses, including the Creeper virus created in 1971, Elk Cloner virus from 1981, and (c)Brain virus in 1986. It describes how early viruses spread through the exchange of floppy disks since computer networks were not widespread yet. As personal computers and BBS use increased in the 1980s, more viruses were made to infect shared software. Macro viruses targeting Microsoft Office programs like Word and Excel became common in the 1990s and could spread across both Windows and Macintosh devices.

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25 views1 page

Evolution of Computer Viruses

The document summarizes the history of computer viruses. It discusses the first viruses, including the Creeper virus created in 1971, Elk Cloner virus from 1981, and (c)Brain virus in 1986. It describes how early viruses spread through the exchange of floppy disks since computer networks were not widespread yet. As personal computers and BBS use increased in the 1980s, more viruses were made to infect shared software. Macro viruses targeting Microsoft Office programs like Word and Excel became common in the 1990s and could spread across both Windows and Macintosh devices.

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shedes
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© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

Virus programs

The Creeper virus was first detected on ARPANET, the forerunner of the Internet, in the early
1970s.[10] Creeper was an experimental self-replicating program written by Bob Thomas at BBN
Technologies in 1971.[11] Creeper used the ARPANET to infect DEC PDP-10 computers running
the TENEX operating system.[12] 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. The
Reaper program was created to delete Creeper.[13]

A program called "Elk Cloner" was the first computer virus to appear "in the wild" — that is,
outside the single computer or lab where it was created.[14] Written in 1981 by Richard Skrenta, it
attached itself to the Apple DOS 3.3 operating system and spread via floppy disk.[14][15] This
virus, created as a practical joke when Skrenta was still in high school, was injected in a game on
a floppy disk. On its 50th use the Elk Cloner virus would be activated, infecting the computer
and displaying a short poem beginning "Elk Cloner: The program with a personality."

The first PC virus in the wild was a boot sector virus dubbed (c)Brain,[16] created in 1986 by the
Farooq Alvi Brothers in Lahore, Pakistan, reportedly to deter piracy of the software they had
written.[17]

Before computer networks became widespread, most viruses spread on removable media,
particularly floppy disks. In the early days of the personal computer, many users regularly
exchanged information and programs on floppies. Some viruses spread by infecting programs
stored on these disks, while others installed themselves into the disk boot sector, ensuring that
they would be run when the user booted the computer from the disk, usually inadvertently. PCs
of the era would attempt to boot first from a floppy if one had been left in the drive. Until floppy
disks fell out of use, this was the most successful infection strategy and boot sector viruses were
the most common in the wild for many years.[1]

Traditional computer viruses emerged in the 1980s, driven by the spread of personal computers
and the resultant increase in BBS, modem use, and software sharing. Bulletin board-driven
software sharing contributed directly to the spread of Trojan horse programs, and viruses were
written to infect popularly traded software. Shareware and bootleg software were equally
common vectors for viruses on BBS's.[citation needed]

Macro viruses have become common since the mid-1990s. Most of these viruses are written in
the scripting languages for Microsoft programs such as Word and Excel and spread throughout
Microsoft Office by infecting documents and spreadsheets. Since Word and Excel were also
available for Mac OS, most could also spread to Macintosh computers. Although most of these
viruses did not have the ability to send infected e-mail, those viruses which did take advantage of
the Microsoft Outlook COM interface.[citation needed][18]

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