A Brief History Of Computer Virus

There is a great deal of debate about this history and evolution of computer viruses. Although many experts may disagree on the origins of viruses, their history is an interesting one. Computer viruses have evolved over the years as the measures taken to detect and disable viruses have become more effective. There is a constant struggle between programmers who write viruses and the programmers who create anti-Virus Software, with one group trying to stay a step ahead of the other. Computer users can more effectively defend themselves against viruses when they have an understanding of how viruses work and their origins.

In 1949, a mathematician named John Von Neumann introduced the concept of programs that could be taught to replicate themselves. Although this thinking was way ahead of its time, the roots of computer viruses can be traced to the principles Von Neumann was describing. Nearly 20 years later, in the late 1960s, computer users created a game called “Core Wars,” where they would attempt to occupy all of the existing memory on other player’s computers. Programmers at the time had no idea that they were writing computer viruses.

The first known personal computer virus was called the brain virus, and it began infecting PCs in 1986. The Brain Virus was created in Pakistan and was a boot sector virus that affected disk space as opposed to hard drives. The virus would render floppy disks unusable by eliminating their available space. The Brain Virus was a “Stealth” virus, or in other words a virus that tried to affect machines without being noticed by the user. The first anti-virus program was created in 1988. The program was designed specifically to deal with the Brain Virus, detecting, removing, and protecting disks from future problems with the virus. The first Trojan horse virus was also created in the mid 1980′s.

In late 1987, the first “memory resident file infector” was createdóa virus that was embedded in a file and attacked only once the program was ordered to execute by the user. The first of these viruses was called the Lehigh Virus, as the first computers it attacked were at Lehigh University. A month later, a similar virus, called the Jerusalem Virus, attacked in Israel, becoming the first virus that replicated itself within infected files.

In 1990, several companies started selling anti-virus software, including IBM and McAfee, with Symantec introducing Norton Anti-Virus software in 1991. Viruses were become more stealth and more effective than ever before and the need for anti-virus software was growing for PC owners. Ironically, only a few years later, most computer experts felt that anti-virus software would no longer be necessary once Microsoft released its 1995 version of Windows, a fact that is hard to believe in retrospect.

Nearly every year since the mid 90′s, another new virus has been created, detected, and rendered ineffective by anti-virus software. The tug of war between programmers who write viruses and anti-virus software programmers will likely continue for years to come.