The first thoughts about computer viruses appeared in 1949. Mathematician John von Neumann was involved in the development of the first computers and described in his theoretical notes how computer programs could be made to copy themselves – in the same way that organic viruses reproduce in cells.
In the following decades, various sharp programmers tried to develop self-propagating programs according to Neumann’s ideas. One of the first successful attempts was made in 1971, when the computer virus Creeper was released on a closed computer network.
A little over a decade later, in 1982, the first real computer virus hit, when Elk Cloner started infecting the popular Apple II computers.
A teenager was responsible for the first computer virus attack
The attack was carried out by 15-year-old middle school student Rich Skrenta who had used his winter break to program the Elk Cloner virus as a “silly but harmless prank”.
The computer virus arrived with game disks that were copied in the group of friends so that more people could play the game. At first the computer virus lay dormant, but when the diskette was used for the 50th time, Elk Cloner took over the computer screen. There appeared a short, triumphant prose poem, but otherwise the virus was not harmful and it was also easy to destroy.
If the computer was booted with an infected diskette in the player, Elk Cloner would copy itself to the hard disk and then infect the next diskette. This is how this computer virus was able to spread.
Nowadays, computer virus attacks and virus protection have long since become a permanent part of the existence of all computer users.
