The First Computer Viruses
The Creeper virus was first detected on ARPANET, the forerunner of the Internet, in the early 1970s.
The first IBM PC virus in the wild was a boot sector virus dubbed Brain, created in 1986 by the Farooq Alvi Brothers in Lahore, Pakistan, reportedly to deter piracy of the software they had written.
The first virus to specifically target Microsoft Windows, WinVir was discovered in April 1992, two years after the release of Windows 3.0. The virus did not contain any Windows API calls, instead relying on DOS interrupts.
Even home computers were affected by viruses. The first one to appear on the Commodore Amiga was a boot sector virus called SCA virus, which was detected in November 1987.
Viruses and the Internet
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.
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.Viruses can increase their chances of spreading to other computers by infecting files on a network file system or a file system that is accessed by other computers.
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.Viruses can increase their chances of spreading to other computers by infecting files on a network file system or a file system that is accessed by other computers.