The history of computer viruses dates back to the 1980s, when the first computer virus was created in 1981 by Rick Skrenta named Elk Cloner. This virus spread via floppy disks on Apple II computers.
Recently the most horrendous virus is Wannacry Ransomware. This ransomware attack spread through computer networks running Microsoft Windows starting in 12 Mei 2017.. Wannacry ransomware takes users' files hostage, and demanding ransom payment in Bitcoin cryptocurrency.
The history of computer viruses and their development in the world will be briefly described in this article.
History of Computer Viruses from Year to Year
1981
First 'in the wild' virus discovered. This virus, called Elk Cloner, spread via floppy disks on Apple II computers.
1986
A pair of brothers from Pakistan, Basit and Amjad, created the first boot sector virus, named Brain. Brain is often referred to as the world's first computer virus.
1987
File infector viruses like Leigh are starting to appear, most attack
COM files such as COMMAND.COM. In the same year the first virus attacking EXE files appeared, Suriv 01 And 02 and Jerusalem. IBM mainframes experienced an IBM Christmas Worm worm attack with a replication rate of half a million copies per hour.
1988
The first virus to attack Macintosh computers, MacMag and Scores, appear. In the same year CERT was founded (Computer Emergency Response Team) by DARPA with the initial aim of overcoming the Morris Worm attack created by Robert Morris.
1989
AIDS Trojan appears as a trojan that disguises itself as an AIDS information program. When executed this trojan will encrypt the hard drive and demand payment for the decryption key.
1990
Virus Exchange Factory (VX) BBS, which is an online discussion forum for virus creators, was founded in Bulgaria. Mark Ludwig wrote the book "The Little Black Book of Computer Viruses" which contains
ways to create various types of computer viruses.
1991
The first polymorphic virus, Tequila, appeared in Switzerland. This virus can change itself to avoid detection.
1992
The presence of the Michaelangelo virus is a threat to the entire world. The emergence of several tools that can be used to create viruses such as
Dark Avenger Mutation Engine (DAME) which can turn any virus into a polymorphic virus, and Virus Creation Lab (VCL) which is a kit
The first thing that can be used to create viruses
1995
Hackers under the name 'Internet Liberation Front' carried out many attacks on Thanksgiving Day. Some of the bodies that were victims of this attack were
Griffith Air Force Base, Korean Atomic Research Institute, NASA, GE, IBM. The first macro virus to attack the Microsoft Word application, Concept, developed.
1996
The emergence of the Boza virus which is specifically designed to attack Windows files 95. The Laroux virus was the first virus to attack Microsoft Excel. The Staog virus is the first Linux virus.
1998
The appearance of the first Java virus, Strange Brew.
Back Orifice is the first trojan that can be used as a tool to take control of a remote computer via the Internet.
This year, other macro viruses emerged.
1999
The emergence of the Melissa virus is a combination of a macro virus that attacks the Microsoft Word application and a worm that uses the address book
on Microsoft Outlook and Oulook Express applications to send itself via email.
The Corner virus was the first virus to attack MS Project application files.
The Tristate virus is a multi-program macro virus that attacks the Microsoft Word application, Excel, and PowerPoint.
Bubbleboy is the first worm that can be activated just by opening an email via the Microsoft Outlook application without requiring attachments.
2000
Serangan Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) first doing damage to big sites like Yahoo!, Amazon.com, and others.
The ILOVEYOU virus is a computer virus that spreads love letters from someone in the Philippines to all their online friends. This virus was created by a Filipino programmer, who sent it as an attachment to an email message with the subject line “ILOVEYOU”. Love Letter was a worm with the highest spreading speed at that time which caused damage to many email systems throughout the world.
Liberty Crack which is the first worm for PDA equipment.
2001
Gnuman (Mandrake) was the first worm to attack peer to peer communication networks. This worm disguises itself in the form of an MP3 file that can be downloaded.
The emergence of viruses designed to attack both Windows and Linux operating systems, like Winux or Lindose.
The LogoLogic-A virus spreads via the MIRC application and e-mail.
2002
The LFM-926 virus was the first virus to attack Shockwave Flash application files.
Donut was the first worm to attack .NET services.
SQLSpider is a worm that attacks applications that use Microsoft SQL Server technology
2003
Blaster Virus infects more than 250.000 Windows computer in less than 24 jam.
The Slammer virus is believed to be the fastest spreading computer virus ever released into cyberspace. The virus spread at a rate of about one million computers per minute during its first day
2017
The worldwide Wannacry Ransomware cyberattack that began in 12 Mei 2017. This attack is deployed using EternalBlue, an exploit developed by the United States National Security Agency(NSA) for Windows systems. Wannacry ransomware takes users' files hostage, and demanding ransom payments in the cryptocurrency Bitcoin.
Closing
The development of computer and communication systems technology has influenced the history of computer viruses from year to year. Starting from distribution via floppy disks and boot sectors to distribution via the internet network.
With the increasing development of AI technology (Artificial Intelligence) At the moment, and the potential for virus creators to take advantage of the PC technology they have, there will be a high possibility of the emergence of more virulent and dangerous computer viruses.
The history of computer viruses will continue to grow with increasingly complex threats in the future. What exactly a computer virus is and how it works is explained in the article Get to know computer viruses and how they work.