The Evolution of the Computer Virus - 1800 Words

The Evolution of the Computer Virus Introduction In simple terms a virus can be defined as software, which is unwanted and executes arbitrary code on systems. It acts as a small software program, which has the capability of exploiting other software programs in order to piggyback[1]. The terms viruses and malwares are used interchangeably, however, in technical terms, the viruses are a subset of malware and so are trojans, worms and rootkits. The name for the â€Å"Computer Virus† has actually derived from its biological counterpart because of their proximity in properties. Similar to the functioning of biological viruses, a computer virus must use another program to exploit some other program in order to start functioning. Hence, this†¦show more content†¦Ã¢â‚¬ËœThe root of virus evolution can be drawn back to 1949 when the scientist John von Neumann introduced the concept of self-replicating programs. The design suggested by Von Neumann for the self-producing programs is said to be the first computer virus. The predecessors of the current form of viruses date back to the 60s.It was then that a game called â€Å"Core Wars† was developed which had the capability of regenerating every time it was run. This game could also the exhaust the memory of the computer of other players. Similarly, another application named Reeper was developed by the founders of â€Å"Core wars†, which could delete the copies made as a result of running of â€Å"Core Wars†. This turned out to be one of the first antivirus applications. During the same time, another malicious code named â€Å"Brain† was created in 1966, which made the contents of the disks inaccessible by infecting the boot sectors of disks. The main target of this malicious program was MS-DOS which itself was relatively new at that time. The same year, another application named â€Å"PC-Write† was developed which served as the first Trojan. During the development phase of viruses it was soon realized that infecting the files could increase the damages caused to the computer systems. Hence, 1987 saw the appearance of â€Å"Suriv02†, a virus infecting COM files and leading to development of other viruses, like Viernes 13Show MoreRelatedComputer Attacks And Its Impact On The Security1466 Words   |  6 PagesIntroduction With the rising evolution of businesses, the evolution of business and institution data security has also evolved exceptionally. Various data security methods have been devised to ensure that vulnerability is mitigated but at the same time cyber criminals such as hackers have also evolved their data hacking methods as they look for the least weaknesses in a company and exploit it. 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