A Brief History: The First Computer Virus

Welcome to the Dungeon © 1986 Amjads (pvt) Ltd VIRUS_SHOE RECORD V9.0 Dedicated to the dynamic memories of millions of viruses who are no longer with us today — Thanks GOODNESS!!! BEWARE OF THE er..VIRUS : this program is catching program follows after these ….$#@%$@!!

This was the text displayed by the first computer virus on infected boot sectors of floppy disks by the ‘Brain’ virus, created in 1986.

The virus was created by two brothers named Basit and Amjad Farooq Alvi in their computer store in Lahore, Pakistan.

Brain slowed down the floppy disk drive, and by replacing the boot sector in the floppy disk, this message would display claiming infection.

Brain was also one of the first examples of a “stealth” virus, meaning it was able to hide itself from detection by early antivirus software.

Brain, Creeper and the first antivirus

‘Brain’ was the first virus made outside of a test laboratory but there have been previous instances such as the “Creeper “: an experimental self-replicating virus released by BBN Technologies in 1971, that filled up a computer’s hard drive until it could not operate any further.

In the same year, Ray Tomlinson, also of BBN Technologies, created the “Reaper program” to chase the Creeper program around to different computers and attack it and delete it.

This is often considered the first anti-virus.

Fun fact: Tomlinson is also credited in creating the first instance of email and developing the use of the @ symbol.

Morris and ILOVEYOU

In 1988, “The Morris” was the first virus to spread extensively to the public. It was written by Robert Morris, a graduate student from Cornell University.

He created the virus to determine the true size of the Internet at that time, but due to a programming mistake it spread to interfere with the normal operation of computers.

It infected around 15,000 computers in 15 hours, which back then, was most of the Internet!

In the 21st Century, with the birth of speedy broadband and more and more people owning personal computers, came a whole new way for malware to be transmitted.

No longer needing a floppy disk or company networks to spread, viruses were able to spread very quickly via email, popular websites or even directly over the Internet.

This led to the ‘threat’ landscape evolving and the need for us to up our cybersecurity to protect ourselves, even more incumbent.

One of the most serious widespread ‘virus’ epidemics of this new era was sweetly named, “the LoveLetter” — which first appeared in May, 2000.

Cleverly enticing recipients with the email subject line “ILOVEYOU” and the attachment “LOVE-LETTER-FOR-YOU.TXT.vb, LoveLetter infected over ten million Windows personal computers!

First, the virus would cause damage by overwriting random files (including Office files and image files) and then, it copied itself to all addresses in the Windows Address Book used by Microsoft Outlook, allowing it to spread much faster than any other previous email viruses.

True cyber chaos!

What’s the damage?

The true damage of a virus is anything from spamming your email contacts and corrupting files, to your private information such as passwords, banking details and identity being stolen, and some may affect your computer’s normal operations or crash it entirely — rendering it unusable.

Often hackers may even demand you to pay a ransom for your files or information back.

Know your threats and protect your weaknesses

You need to be able to detect a threat to successfully protect yourself from it, so below, we have a roundup of a few important facts:

● According to 2023 stats, 560,000 new pieces of malware are detected each day.

● Human error is the primary cause of cybersecurity breaches, accounting for 95% of all data breaches.

● There are currently more than 1 billion malware programs out there.

● Four companies are attacked by ransomware every minute.

● Hackers are now financially motivated and clever, always willing to push the boundaries of connection and code to devise new infection methods.

Scary stuff right?

Be sure to adopt cybersecurity practices for yourself and for your organisation. Any questions, do not hesitate to reach out to Cybawareness.

Stay vigilant, stay updated, and most importantly, stay secure!