Who created the first computer virus?

Today we are frightened by millions of people spreading around the internet whether you download or run a file or you simply click on a strange link in an email. So before all these nightmares happened, how did the first virus spread? Who invented them?

The first computer virus is very simple. It is called Creeper and it only appears on the screen with the words: 'I AM CREEPER. GET ME IF CAN BE '. The first virus is not only a harmless experiment on computers, but it is completely isolated from the home computer network. It was in the 1971s, when there was no general internet.

Today we are afraid of millions of viruses, they spread all over the internet whether you download or run a file on any peer network. Or you simply click on a strange link in the email and the next thing that happens is that your system turns into an attack object. When all are connected, extensive infection becomes easier. Each year, we spend billions of dollars on virus-related problems.

So before all these nightmares happened, how did the first virus spread? Who invented them? This depends on who you ask and the virus on a Mac or PC.

Elk Cloner

Elk Cloner is what we know today as a 'boot sector' virus.(Illustration).

In 1981, Richard Skernta was a mischievous and very intelligent 9th grade student. Young Richard has an Apple II. One of his hobbies is to write code to play against computer games that violate his friends' copyright.

In an interview in 2000, Skrenta said: 'I joke with my classmates by changing copies of pirated games and making them self-destruct after a few times. play. I created a new game, my friends all love this game, but then the game will end itself with a joke of my nature on the screen '.

Finally, Skrenta's friends no longer allowed him to touch their floppy disks and did not allow him to borrow games to play, nor did he play those games that he " played with " again. At that time, Skrenta was just a joke, and Apple was a very different company now. The Apple II was only on par with a Paspberry Pi, not like a MacBook Pro. Skrenta has read a lot of technology books to find vulnerabilities in the Apple II system. Finally the 15-year-old boy found a way to add code to games without having to touch the discs.

Skrenta said: 'I came up with the idea of ​​leaving a bit of excess on the operating system of the Apple II at school. If the next user does not perform a clean reboot command on his or her disk types, those disks will be left behind by my code. '

This guy only takes 2 weeks to finish writing that 'redundancy' in an assembly. He called the program Elk Cloner. Elk Cloner is what we know today as a 'boot sector' virus. Its mode of infection is as follows: when an uninfected disk is plugged into a virus-infected computer, the computer will spread the virus to the floppy disk, in particular it will create a copy. of Elk Cloner on the boot part of the floppy disk, this code will run automatically on the boot part. When a student plugs any infected floppy disk into another computer, and starts the computer with a virus-infected floppy disk, the computer will be infected with a copy of Elk Cloner.

This virus causes very sophisticated errors. By the 50th time when you plug the disc into your computer, your game will not boot as usual but instead, a poem will appear on the screen:

'Elk Cloner: a program with personality

It will appear on all your disks

It will invade your chip

Yes, it is Cloner

It will stick to you like glue

It will change your RAM always

Sent in Cloner! '

In order for this program to be undetected for a longer time and the virus spread more, this poem appeared for the 50th time. By the time he saw this message, users had become Elk Cloner infected people for hundreds of floppy disks and other computers. They could see this poem everywhere, week after week.

And this virus has really spread. Elk Cloner appeared on the graphics software of Skrenta's math teacher. He was extremely angry and suspected Skrenta, accusing him of breaking into his office. Skrenta's cousin, who lives in Baltimore, was also infected with the virus (while Skrenta lived in Pittsburgh) and many years later, he discovered that a sailor of the US Navy was also infected with the virus.

Brain

The virus was first released on IBM computer operating systems called Brain.

The virus was first released on IBM computer operating systems called Brain . Like Elk Cloner, it is also a boot sector virus. Its inventor was the Pakistani brothers Basit and Amjad Farooq Alvi. The brothers said they had not heard any information about the Elk Cloner virus when they developed the Brain virus in 1986. At that time Basit 17 and Amjad 24.

The co-founder of Brain Computer Service, the Alvi brothers said they developed Brain virus to punish and monitor which computers have stolen the copyright of medical software written for IBM computers. they. If this software disk is pirated, the boot sector will be replaced by a boot sector infected with viruses, occupying a lot of memory kilobytes, slowing down the disk and sometimes even preventing the user from performing the save operation.

Like Elk Cloner, this virus is almost harmless and it does not destroy any data. But the infected boot sectors also received the following message: 'Welcome to Dungeon 1986 Basit & Amajad (pvt) Ltd. BRAIN COMPUTER SERVICE 730 NIZAB BLOCK ALLAMA IQBAL TOWN LAHORE - PAKISTAN PHONE: 430791,443248,280530. Be careful with this VIRUS . Contact us to get the vaccine .. $ # @% $ @ !! '

The two Alvi brothers.

Contact information on the message is real. The original idea was to keep track of the discs that were copied. Whenever the brother receives a phone call, a visit, or a letter from someone who fears the warning and looks for a vaccine, they will be able to identify and Mark the location where their software is being pirated. In an interview with F-Secure in 2012, Amjad said: 'By putting that code in, we can see if the virus is spreading around the world or just stopping at one part. user. The virus also counted how many discs had been copied. "

What they discovered was that piracy was rampant and their pirated copies spread far and wide. Very very far away. Amjad said: 'The first call we received was from Miami, USA. The caller said she had a problem with the floppy disk and she discovered the virus'.

It was the first of many many calls from the United States. One problem is that Brain is able to spread through floppy disks, like Elk Cloner, and it spreads to those who do not have a direct copy of the software. Dalaware University was also a victim of the Brain epidemic in 1986 after it appeared on millions of places. Although the virus has never been 'touched' by law, its image covers the media. The Alvi brothers and the Brain virus also appeared in Time magazine in 1988.

Time magazine reported: 'A fake computer program entered the Providence Journal-Bulletin personal computers earlier this month, destroying a journalist's documents and spreading through the floppy disk. throughout the editorial computer system '.

Finally, the Alvi brothers were forced to change their phone numbers and delete this contact information permanently. The brothers said they have stopped selling virus-infected software since 1987. The two brothers' companies have grown into a telecommunications company and now it is Pakistan's largest internet service provider. . But the company's address in Lahore remains the same.

Nowadays

Skrenta, the father of the Elk Cloner virus, worked for a cyber security company in the 1990s. He is currently the CEO of a search company called Blekko with a total value of up to 60.2 million USD.

Skrenta.

Although no one now uses floppy disks, boot sector viruses still exist. They are transmitted via USB sticks. But now fewer and fewer people use hardware devices to transfer files, and maybe one day, this boot sector virus will be lost.

But that does not mean that the war is over. Srenta told the Register: 'The antivirus industry makes me sad. We should have built antivirus systems that are better than millions of dollars to remove them. '

None of the two Alvi brothers felt guilty for creating the first virus. They wrote on the blog: 'The only consolation is that the virus has disappeared. But when we first gave it, we were very happy. '