It would be at least three years before Internet Service Providers (ISPs) started providing public access to the internet, in 1989. The very first iterations of the internet were relegated to governments and universities. In 1986, computing was still rudimentary (slow and not internet connected). Send in the Cloner! 1986: The first PC virus The virus would reside in memory and look for a clean floppy disk to infect. On the fiftieth boot, Elk Cloner would display a poem to the user:Įlk Cloner: The program with a personality This boot sector virus propagated whenever an infected disk was run. It was written by a then-15-year-old, who wrote such programs to play pranks on his friends. The intent was not for malicious or devious reasons, but to see if the “I’m the creeper, catch me if you can” message could propagate to other computers via ARPANET.Ĭontrary to what every non-technical person says, “Macs are not susceptible to viruses,” the first computer virus found in the wild, dubbed “Elk Cloner,” was designed to target Apple II computers. Like its modern worm successors, it spread via a network protocol. It spread through ARPANET computers and posted the following message: Based on a concept first articulated by German mathematician John von Neumann in the 1940s, it was built at BBN (an American research and development company later acquired by Raytheon) by engineer Bob Thomas. Ironically, 1971 also saw the premier of the world’s first virus Proof of Concept, dubbed “The Creeper.” Although credited and referenced by various entities as the world’s first computer virus, the Creeper actually exhibited the behavior of a worm. Its size (two inches rather than 12), price ($60), and performance (comparable to much larger and more expensive processors) ushered in a new era in computing It was the first commercially produced general-purpose CPU. In 1971, the first microprocessor was developed, the Intel 4004. NCP was the first network transport layer to enable data to flow from computer to computer. The first computers were connected in 1969, and one year later, the Network Control Program (NCP) was developed (the predecessor to the modern TCP/IP stack). ARPANET began in 1967 to try and connect remote computers. The early years 1971: The first Proof of Conceptīefore the internet existed, at least in the form we know today, there was the Advanced Research Projects Agency Network, or ARPANET, for short. Instead, we’ve highlighted many of the most notable examples and memorable events of the past 50 years. It would be impossible to cover all malware and events over the past 50 years in such a short blog post. Malware is a generic term that encapsulates all threats-viruses, worms, botnets, ransomware, etc.-anything malicious that is software-related.A worm does not require human interaction and can replicate on its own, tunnel deep into systems, and move between devices.A virus cannot replicate without human interaction, whether clicking a link, opening an attachment, launching an application, or downloading a file.To start, here is some basic terminology: So, in recognition of over 50 years since the first computer virus was discovered, we have decided to provide a brief historical insight into the history of computer malware from the pre-internet era to the current world of botnets, ransomware, viruses, worms, and more. And like its biological counterparts, a computer virus also replicates and can be transmitted from one host to another, creating problems ranging from annoying to downright destructive. Part of the reason is that we have all been exposed to the impact of viruses, such as the flu or the common cold. It is usually associated with something destructive to the technology we all rely on, whether it’s a laptop, smartphone, application, or gaming system, demonstrating how ubiquitous computers and technology have become in our daily lives. Regardless of socioeconomic background or age, everyone has an immediate negative connotation to that term. A “computer virus” is one of the few transcendent technical terms everyone understands, including children.
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