COMPUTER VIRUSES HISTORY

If you know how, Viruses are surprisingly easy to create. That’s the reason why there are thousands of active Viruses in the Internet today.

Some of these Viruses made Headlines by virtue of having cost businesses and private PC owners millions of dollars in damages.

Let’s take a look at some of these noteworthy works of genius, so we can better prevent similar Catastrophes in the future.

1. The Worm was the first Virus to be discovered back in 1979. A Worm usually corrupts and erases Files in an infected Computer.

   In 1983, the first official Virus definition was created by Fred Cohen. As the 80’s decade progressed to that of the 90’s, the Brain, the Lehigh and Jerusalem Viruses were also unleashed by their creators on the Electronic World.

   1991 saw the development of the Polymorphic Virus. This type of Virus continuously evolves to avoid detection by Antivirus Software. To prove that Humans aren’t dumb, 1,300 hundred Viruses were recorded to be in existence in 1992.

2. It wasn’t until 1998 when people first heard and experienced the frighteningly real destructive power of a single Virus. The Chernobyl Virus was designed to erase and re-write whole Sections or portions of a Computer’s memory. When the commands and protocols of the Computer have been erased or re-written, the Infected Computers usually ceased to function.
3. In 1999, the Melissa Virus started disrupting Computer Systems by Infecting Computers through E-mail. The damage caused by Melissa amounted to more than $80 million. It was only two years later that its creator was sentenced to prison for a measly 20 months.
4. In the year 2000, there came the Infamous Love Bug or I Love You Virus. Like Melissa, the Love Bug Infected the System via E-mail, but did more than just disrupt its operation. Love Bug was designed to steal the Computer User’s Passwords and Usernames and send it back to its creator. Speaking of its creator, he was a student in a country that did not have any laws against Electronic Piracy or Destruction. He walks free.
5. The following year, three significant Virus Attacks were recorded. The first of these Attacks was from the Code Red Virus which infected approximately 400,000 Computers and totaled a whopping $2.6 billion worth of Damages in just 12 hours.
6. Immediately after Code Red came the Nimda Virus which could self-replicate in five different ways mostly to avoid Antivirus Detection Software.
7. By itself, the Anna Kournikova Virus was not that destructive. What is scary is that the creator used available utilities from the Internet. It’s much like walking into a Grocery Store and buying seemingly harmless products. When you put those products together, you can actually make a respectable explosion.

   Anna Kournikova’s Creator was a 20 year old Netherlander who surrendered to the Authorities. He got 150 hours of Community Service as punishment. The Creator of the utilities used for making the Virus subsequently withdrew them from the Internet. He was an 18 year old from Argentina.

8. The Klez Worm Virus of 2002 was hard to detect as it had 120 different subject lines. It spread through E-mail very quickly. There are still surviving variants of the Klez Virus today.
9. In just 10 minutes, a single Virus infected over 75,000 computers and caused ATM machines, Airport Computers, Nuclear Power Plant Computers and other Electronic Hardware to Malfunction and Crash. The Creator of the Slammer Virus is still unknown.
10. Still in 2003, the Blaster Worm was created by a 19 year old adult male in Minnesota. He was sentenced to 18 months in prison. His creation caused Computers to report errors and shutdown and restart on their own.
11. The Sasser Virus was released in 2004 by an 18 year old German. Like the Slammer, this Virus wreaked havoc on any and all Computer Systems it could Infect. The offender got a suspended 21 month Sentence.

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The Viruses listed above are just a minority in terms of numbers. They are significant because they caused some of the most Threat and Damage to Computer Systems Worldwide and; they have become the Models for Virus Architecture.

There are thousands more Viruses circulating around Web. One of the big Antivirus Software providers, reported that 30 new Viruses were detected in just one month.

As long as people continue to create Viruses, we will need Anti-virus experts to shield us from Virus attacks.

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