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Linux Loopback Viruses: the First Thirty Years
What is the age of a computer virus? Who created the first computer virus? Yet these simply crafted programs can cause so much havoc. The idea of the first computer viruses were published in 1966. The article The Theory of Self-Reproducing Automata is a posthumously published work by John Neumann. Apparently, in 1949, self-replicating programs were created to produce viruses. John Neumann is shown below.
In 1959 Bell Labs created a computer game called Darwin. The creators, Victor Vysottsky, H. Douglas McIlroy and Robert P Morris, designed the game where viruses/species competed against the PC’s processor. Further details about Darwin can be found here: http://www.cs.datmouth.edu/~doug/darwin.pdf
This is the earliest documented programming game as shown by the picture below. This game eventually stalled when one of the creators developed a virus/species that could not be conquered.
In 1971, the first computer virus was created by Bob Thomas. Using ARAPANET, this virus infected computers running the Tenex OS. This virus would only display a message “I’m the creeper, catch me if you can!” Henceforth the name of this virus is Creeper. While it was annoying, this virus was not malicious. In response, Ray Tomlinson wrote a program named Reaper which would delete the Creeper on Tenex OS computers. Consequently the Reaper is the first antivirus program created.
The first malicious virus was created in 1974 called Rabbit. This viral program would clone itself on a computer hard drive. The cloning process would sap the computer’s resources until it eventually crashed. The virus creator is unknown.
A year later, John Walker created Animal. Animal would infect Univac 1108’s. This program would ask a series of questions to the end user. The computer would attempt to guess what animal the end user liked based on the answers. A simple OS upgrade would neutralize this threat.
In 1979 Millersville State College experienced the first “sneakernet.” Two random seed instruction cards were placed into the card stack for the Univac computer. The seed instruction cards simply overworked the computer with minimalist outputs. There was no permanent damage to the system. One person took credit for the incident and paid a minor fine for it. Consequently, the college instituted a tracking policy for individuals.
Next month Linux Lookback will finish off the history of computer viruses.