kaspersky databases are extremely out of date

The Brain Boot Sector Virusīrain, the first PC virus, began infecting 5.2' floppy disks in 1986. There was no malicious intent here, but ANIMAL and PREVADE fit the definition of a Trojan: Hiding inside ANIMAL was another program that carried out actions without the user's approval. While playing the game, PREVADE examined all computer directories available to the user and then made a copy of ANIMAL in any directories where it wasn't already present. To make things easier, Walker created PERVADE, which installed itself along with ANIMAL. The version Walker created was in high demand, and sending it to his friends meant making and transmitting magnetic tapes. At the time, 'animal programs,' which try to guess which animal the user is thinking of with a game of 20 questions, were extremely popular. The First TrojanĬalled ANIMAL, the first Trojan (although there is some debate as to whether this was a Trojan, or simply another virus) was developed by computer programmer John Walker in 1975, according to Fourmilab. The speed of replication gave the virus its name. Once on a computer, it made multiple copies of itself, severely reducing system performance and eventually crashing the machine. CATCH ME IF YOU CAN!' The Rabbit VirusĪccording to InfoCarnivore, the Rabbit (or Wabbit) virus was developed in 1974, did have malicious intent and was able to duplicate itself. Creeper had no malicious intent and only displayed a simple message: 'I'M THE CREEPER. With each new hard drive infected, Creeper would try to remove itself from the previous host. Creeper was actually designed as a security test to see if a self-replicating program was possible. The Creeper ProgramĪs noted by Discovery, the Creeper program, often regarded as the first virus, was created in 1971 by Bob Thomas of BBN. The paper was effectively a thought experiment that speculated that it would be possible for a 'mechanical' organism-such as a piece of computer code-to damage machines, copy itself and infect new hosts, just like a biological virus. What is a computer virus? This idea was first discussed in a series of lectures by mathematician John von Neumann in the late 1940s and a paper published in 1966, Theory of Self-Reproducing Automata. What follows is a brief history of the computer virus, and what the future holds for this widespread cyber threat. When it comes to cybersecurity, there are few terms with more name recognition than 'computer viruses.' Despite the prevalence of these threats and their wide-spread impact, however, many users don't know about the basic nature of viruses.

Kaspersky databases are extremely out of date