What is a computer virus and when did it first appear?
Who has never encountered computer viruses? Probably the person who either did not spend a second at the computer, or spent too little time on the computer... A computer virus acts like any epidemic - it never infects just one computer, it acts en masse.
A virus can be either a program or malicious code that is embedded in other programs. The victim program can be any vulnerable program that can be easily hacked and its code changed.
There are now countless numbers of viruses. Some are practically harmless, some can seriously harm your system, your data, and some can even steal your data.
The definition itself began in 1951, when the theory of creating self-reproducing mechanisms (which is what viruses are) was laid down by the Hungarian programmer John von Neumann. Programs of this kind began to appear in 1961.
However, viruses began to appear in their manifestation much later. In 1981, the first known viruses, Virus 1, Virus 2, Virus 3, and Elk Cloner, hit the Apple II PC. Only in 1984 did the first antivirus utilities appear - CHK4BOMB and BOMBSQAD. The resident antivirus was the creation of Guy Wong - DPROTECT.
The first virus epidemics were recorded in 1987-1989, when the Zotkin.A virus infected more than 18 thousand computers, and also in 1988, when the Jerusalem virus deleted all programs when they were launched. The well-known Morris worm infected more than 6200 computers, many of which were server computers, causing most networks to shut down for up to five days.
Today, thousands of new viruses are born every day, and developers are fighting hard against them. antivirus programs. Do not neglect installing an antivirus, and also regularly scan your system, for example, using healing utility Dr.Web CureIt. Only in this case will you be able to provide reliable protection against different types of viruses. So, today we learned the simplest definition of the virus, as well as its initial manifestations. Stay with us to learn even more interesting facts from the world of computer technology!
