July 19, 2007 at 08:42The virus turned 25 years old
In July 2007, the first computer virus that managed to spread beyond the borders of the computer of its creator was 25 years old. In 1982, he was written by 15-year-old student Rich Skrenta for the Apple II platform . It is worth noting that the antivirus market created by the emergence of viruses has become an area in which Russian companies feel no less confident than foreign ones.
The first virus, which appeared in July 1982, was written by 15-year-old schoolchildren Rich Skrenta for the Apple II platform and was classified as bootable. It spread by infecting boot sector code for floppy disks for the Apple II operating system. When the computer started, the virus remained in memory and infected all floppy disks that were inserted into the drive.
The virus did not have malicious manifestations, however, it worked correctly only with floppy disks for Apple DOS and could spoil the boot code on floppy disks with other systems. The victims of the virus were the computers of the author's friends and acquaintances, as well as his mathematics teacher.
Like many old viruses, Elk Cloner was distinguished by visual manifestations: every 50th download, he showed a short poem under the heading "Elk Cloner: The program with a personality": "It will get on all your disks. It will infiltrate your chips. Yes it's Cloner! It will stick to you like glue. It will modify RAM too. Send in the Cloner! ” ("Elk Cloner is a unique program. It will penetrate all your disks, filter your chips. Oh, yes, this is Cloner. It will stick to you like glue. The program can also change RAM. Let Cloner come to you.")
“A lot of time has passed since the first virus appeared, and then this“ battle of the shield and sword ”between the developers of viruses and antiviruses began,” says Alexey Dolya, head of the InfoWatch analytical center. - The market for antivirus products has managed to turn into a multi-billion dollar industry. Of particular interest is the fact that the antivirus market is one of the few markets in which Russian developers feel even more confident than foreign ones. ”
Interestingly, the first antivirus is not much younger than its enemy - only two years. In 1984, programmer Andy Hopkins wrote the CHK4BOMB and BOMBSQAD utilities, which intercept some BIOS operations and analyze the boot module, which made it possible to deal with some types of viruses of that time.
Source - CNews .
The first virus, which appeared in July 1982, was written by 15-year-old schoolchildren Rich Skrenta for the Apple II platform and was classified as bootable. It spread by infecting boot sector code for floppy disks for the Apple II operating system. When the computer started, the virus remained in memory and infected all floppy disks that were inserted into the drive.
The virus did not have malicious manifestations, however, it worked correctly only with floppy disks for Apple DOS and could spoil the boot code on floppy disks with other systems. The victims of the virus were the computers of the author's friends and acquaintances, as well as his mathematics teacher.
Like many old viruses, Elk Cloner was distinguished by visual manifestations: every 50th download, he showed a short poem under the heading "Elk Cloner: The program with a personality": "It will get on all your disks. It will infiltrate your chips. Yes it's Cloner! It will stick to you like glue. It will modify RAM too. Send in the Cloner! ” ("Elk Cloner is a unique program. It will penetrate all your disks, filter your chips. Oh, yes, this is Cloner. It will stick to you like glue. The program can also change RAM. Let Cloner come to you.")
“A lot of time has passed since the first virus appeared, and then this“ battle of the shield and sword ”between the developers of viruses and antiviruses began,” says Alexey Dolya, head of the InfoWatch analytical center. - The market for antivirus products has managed to turn into a multi-billion dollar industry. Of particular interest is the fact that the antivirus market is one of the few markets in which Russian developers feel even more confident than foreign ones. ”
Interestingly, the first antivirus is not much younger than its enemy - only two years. In 1984, programmer Andy Hopkins wrote the CHK4BOMB and BOMBSQAD utilities, which intercept some BIOS operations and analyze the boot module, which made it possible to deal with some types of viruses of that time.
Source - CNews .
