The Computer Virus - Part 1 - Introduction

It was the early 1970's. The personal computer as we know it was barely a twinkle in the mind's eye of IBM, Apple, and TRS (among others... I get it...). The Internet was a fledgling network called ARPANET used by colleges, research labs, and the US government, among others, to trade information and research. ARPANET was just starting to grow into a usable worldwide service. The first email had been sent in 1971, and by 1973 about 75% of the traffic on ARPANET had become email. The first attempt at using a digital network for voice calls was attempted not much later. The digital age was growing up fast.

There was however a dark side to all of the growth and advancement in digital technologies.



In early 1970 or 1971, there were reports of a program replicating itself throughout some systems on ARPANET. The message "I'M THE CREEPER : CATCH ME IF YOU CAN" started showing up on various terminals throughout the world.

The release of the Creeper Virus into world networks heralded the early stages of a security nightmare for the IT industry. By the mid to late 1990's, viruses were all over the Internet. Several antivirus companies were trying to keep up with the release of viruses while the numbers of viruses in the wild were increasing on a daily basis.

What is a virus though? This question has been discussed for nearly 30 years since the term was first coined in the digital sense. Microsoft's definition is "Computer viruses are small software programs that are designed to spread from one computer to another and to interfere with computer operation."

While I tend to agree with much of the Microsoft definition, I think they may have gone too far in their initial description of what a virus is. What the virus does after it copies itself to a host computer does not fit into what the definition of a virus is. A computer virus is a small program, usually under 100KB, that is designed to spread from one computer to another without user consent.

What does all this have to do with you? Every day, it is likely that your computer is under attack from some source. Much of the media seems to think that malicious hackers are the only security threat on the Internet. While malicious, or black hat hackers are part of the problem, the great majority of consumer computer security problems stem from both the spread of viruses and the payloads associated with viruses.

Over the next 2 months, this series of articles will examine the history of the computer virus as well as its effects on the digital lifestyle we have all come to love and and depend on. We will explore some of the most notorious viruses as well as try to gain some insight on the people who write them and what they hope to achieve by doing so. We also have interviews with some of the top names in the antivirus industry who will provide you with some great tips on being safe, and supply us with a vision of the future of not only the antivirus industry, but the security industry as a whole.

Check back soon for our next article on the early history of the computer virus.