I often hear questions from computer users – “My computer is broken. Burnt out, etc. I was told it was a virus. This is true? “A question like this usually makes me smile and the short answer is “of course, it’s not true.”
It may not be strange, but the majority of computer users believe that computer viruses can do anything, even steal the computer from the apartment, a joke of course?

Therefore, various myths are created, and usually spread by various imaginary “computer experts” who only yesterday learned to move a mouse.

And their standard response to any breakdown is “Yes, it’s probably a virus, it burned yours” or “I can’t do it, apparently some kind of virus is interfering.” In general, if he doesn’t know what’s broken and how to fix it, then his standard phrase is “It’s a virus.” Well, then “word of mouth” works from a person, information is transmitted to a person about terrifying viruses that burn hundreds of computers in a couple of seconds.

Yes, of course, Hollywood has tried again here with its films in which computer viruses blow up the computers of innocent users, in general, don’t believe everything they show in the movies.

Basic myths about computer viruses and a little humor

This is not true, a computer virus cannot cause any physical damage to your components. Of course, theoretically it is possible to make changes, for example, to video cards. But in 99% of cases, the user himself is to blame for trying to overclock the video card or flash it, and not a mythical virus.

Personally, I have never encountered cases of components breaking (burning) due to viruses.

2. A computer virus is interfering.

Also complete nonsense. Since viruses only work in the operating system environment, that is, when Windows is running. Yes, even after formatting the hard drive when installing windows, all data, including viruses, is completely erased.

3. Viruses do their dirty work even when the computer is turned off.

No, viruses cannot work when the computer is turned off, because a virus is also a program.

4. The computer has been infected with viruses and will not turn on.

Windows may not start because of viruses, but it is impossible for them to prevent the computer from turning on at all.

5. Yes! Viruses explode computers, eat holes in video cards and other components, multiply in the warm environment of the processor radiator and build their own statehood.

Of course, this point is a joke; viruses are incapable of this. I just can’t write this article without humor and a smile. Remembering the statements and questions of some users that are listed in this paragraph.

What can viruses do?

Yes, viruses can be very dangerous and annoying. But they cannot do what I described above. The most nasty ones are those viruses that delete information from your disk by infecting various files. That is, they are deleted, not by them, but by the antiviruses that detected them in this file.
In general, viruses are mostly capable of minor mischief. Although there are more serious brothers, they still cannot burn a computer.

The main thing to remember is that a virus is the same program that independently copies (multiplies) and aims to harm other programs. But since this is a program, it cannot go beyond the functions of programs.

I would be glad if in the comments you express people’s comical beliefs about what viruses can do.

Computer viruses were nothing more than a myth a few decades ago, but over the years the situation has changed dramatically. Nowadays, malware has become a very significant threat to governments and large international corporations, to small businesses and individual computer users. There is not a person in the whole world who would not risk being subjected to a cyber attack, no matter how powerful the antivirus software is on his computer.

1. Creeper Virus

The very first computer virus was the Creeper Virus, which was discovered on the ARPANET, the precursor to the Internet, in the early 1970s. It was an experimental self-replicating program written by Bob Thomas of BBN Technologies in 1971.

2. Viruses, worms and Trojans

There are currently three main categories of malware threats: viruses, worms, and Trojans. While their purpose and the way in which they cause harm differ, all viruses are built on the same principles.

3. Melissa

The Melissa virus (March 1999) was so powerful that it forced Microsoft and many other large companies to shut down their systems email. Mail servers corporations did not work until the virus was completely removed.

4. The dawn of the personal computer era

Before computer networks became widespread, most viruses were spread through portable storage media, in particular floppy disks. At the dawn of an era personal computers most users regularly exchanged information and programs on floppy disks.

5. Viruses are illegal

However, creating a computer virus is not considered an illegal act in the United States today. Some other countries have computer crime laws that are much stricter than those in the United States. For example, in Germany it is illegal to share computer viruses regardless of the reason, and in Finland it is illegal to even write a computer virus.

6. Cybercrime

Due to the ever-increasing number of computer viruses and hackers, new types of computer crimes are emerging. These days, so-called cybercrime covers a wide range of activities such as cyber terrorism, cyber extortion and cyber warfare.

7. Losses - $38 billion

The most expensive computer virus of all time was the MyDoom worm, which was launched in January 2004. It caused losses of $38 billion. According to preliminary estimates, this virus infected 25% of all emails.

8. Anonymous

In fact, it is very easy to become a member of Anonymous - the most famous international hacker network. But only a few members of this organization are elite hackers capable of exploiting security flaws in computer systems and write viruses.

9. Activation via link

It is not possible to become infected with a computer virus simply by reading email. The virus is activated only when you click on a link or open an infected attachment.

10. Scary dynamics

By 1990, there were only about 50 known computer viruses. In the late 1990s, the number of viruses skyrocketed to more than 48,000. Today, about 6,000 new viruses appear every month.

11. Be careful, children!

Some virus authors are children who create viruses just to test their programming skills. About 32% of all computers in the world (that is, almost every third computer) are infected with some kind of malware.

12. Antiviruses are not omnipotent

Despite the best efforts of researchers and developers in the field of computer security, currently none of the existing types of antivirus software unable to identify all computer viruses.

13. VBA Microsoft Office

Created by Filipino programmers Rionel Ramones and Onel de Guzman in 2000, the computer worm known as ILOVEYOU or "chain letter" has become one of the most dangerous computer viruses in history. The virus infected about 10% of the world's Internet-connected computers at the time. Losses for PC users worldwide amounted to more than $10 billion.

The computer has become an integral part of human life today. And scientists are working to improve supercomputers and dream that they will find answers to...

Ilya Alexandrov

History of computer viruses

We're already used to them. School computer science teachers are not afraid of them, they are not written about on the front pages of newspapers. But they continue to play their destructive role in the lives of computer users.

Harbingers of electronic epidemics

It is impossible to say where and when the first virus appeared, since such data does not exist in nature. If there were no viruses yet on the “computer” of Charles Babbage, the “father” of the first computer, by the mid-seventies of the last century they had become a very common and unpleasant phenomenon for most. However, the prerequisites for their creation appeared almost immediately with the creation of the first computers.

Back in 1940, mathematician John von Neumann wrote a book that described self-replicating mathematical automata, that is, the principles that formed the basis of all viruses. In 1959, the American scientific journal Scientific American published an article by L. Penrose talking about self-propagating biological structures. The author examined the abilities of such structures to mutation, activation and reproduction. Another scientist, F. Stahl, put the knowledge obtained from this article into practice. Working as an operator in a research laboratory, he had access to the most powerful computer for that time - the IBM 650. The experiment greatly surprised Stahl, exceeding all his expectations. The resulting electronic “beast” as a result of the “mutation” of mathematical algorithms removed all traces of its “parents” present in the system, and then self-destructed.

Naturally, all of the above works and experiments were not aimed at ensuring that today’s virus writers throw megabytes of new “infection” onto the Internet every day. Initially, these studies, related to the creation of artificial intelligence, were of academic interest. However, any discovery made for peaceful purposes can be turned into a powerful weapon of destruction without much difficulty.

In 1961, the game “Darwin” was very popular among computer scientists. Its plot and meaning were simple: the player led a “race” that was supposed to destroy its competitors. The winner was the one who captured all the money allocated for the game process RAM. No special actions were required in the game: it was only necessary to multiply those belonging to your race into free RAM cells or to capture enemy cells. This algorithm is very similar to the logic of destructive programs.

Widespread computer networks became a catalyst for the birth of the first destructive programs - computer viruses.

70s: beginning

The appearance of the world's first computer virus was recorded in the early 70s of the last century, when the Creeper program was found on the vastness of the military computer network APRAnet - the ancestor of the modern Internet. The virus was written for the Tenex operating system, which was widespread at that time, into which it penetrated, spreading through a modem connection. The following message was periodically displayed on the screen of infected computers: “I’M THE CREEPER: CATCH ME IF YOU CAN.” Creeper did not commit any destructive actions, limiting itself only to this message, which annoyed users. A little later, an “antidote” was written for it - the Reaper program, which found a file with a virus and deleted it. By the way, it was distributed in a similar way to Creeper. We can say that the world's first antivirus was created “by analogy with a malicious program.”

In 1974, a “frequent guest” on various servers was a program with the name Rabbit, cute for livestock farmers. The “rabbit” did nothing but spread and reproduce itself. The program reproduced itself at tremendous speed, gradually occupying all system resources. Sometimes Rabbit even caused servers to crash.

Another example is the logic game Pervading Animal for the Exec 8 operating system, the point of which was for the user to guess the animal guessed by the program. If he failed, the game offered to upgrade it, after which it became possible to ask additional leading questions.

The modified version of the program strangely began to be copied to other directories, with the result that after some time all folders on the hard drive contained a copy of Pervading Animal. Since at that time every kilobyte of space was “worth its weight in gold,” few people were happy with this behavior of the game. It is still not clear whether this was a mistake by the programmers or an idea of ​​the virus writers. However, the problem was quickly resolved - new version Exec 8 operating system was based on a different type file system, on which the program could no longer clog up the file space.

80s: first epidemics

By the eighties of the last century, a computer had ceased to be a luxury available only to a select few. There are more and more PC owners, in addition, the exchange of information between users using electronic bulletin boards (BBS - Buletin Board System) has reached an international scale.

In 1981, the first truly massive viral epidemic occurred. Widespread at that time, the Apple computers II. The Elk Clone virus was written to the boot sectors of floppy disks the moment the user accessed them. Elk Clone distorted the image on the monitor, displayed various text messages, made the text blink. Inexperienced users fell into a stupor from the actions of the virus, while the virus itself continued to “move” from one computer to another.

In 1983, American programmer Len Eidelman first used the term “virus” to describe self-replicating programs.

In 1986, 19-year-old Pakistani Basit Farooq Alvi wrote the Brain virus. Just like Elk Clone, Brain attacked the boot sectors of floppy disks. The program was not oriented towards any destructive functions, it only changed the label of all floppy disks to “(C)Brain”. According to the author, he pursued only one goal - to find out the level of software piracy in his country. But just a few weeks after the virus was activated, thousands of computers around the world were infected, which caused a real commotion among users and a storm of discussions in the media. mass media. In Brain, the technique was first used when, when reading an infected sector of a disk, the virus substituted an uninfected one instead of this section.

In 1988, the first malware was created that not only infected a computer, but also caused real harm to it. This virus was created at Lehigh University, where, by the way, the previously mentioned Fred Cohen worked. The Lehigh virus destroyed information on disks, infecting system files COMMAND.COM. The presence of qualified specialists at the university turned out to be a salvation - he never made it beyond the walls of the educational institution. However, Lehigh’s own algorithm also played a significant role in eliminating the threat of the epidemic - during the formatting of the hard drives, it self-destructed along with the rest of the information.

At the same time, software that protected computers from viruses began to actively develop. Antivirus programs of that time were simple scanners that, through contextual search, tried to detect virus code in programs. Another common “cure” for malware at the time was “immunizers.” This type of software modified all programs in such a way that viruses considered them already infected and did not perform any actions on them. After the number of viruses increased thousands of times, the use of immunizers was no longer useless.

Antivirus companies most often consisted of two or three people and sold their products for a symbolic amount or gave them away for free. But the prevalence of security programs was very low, and the continuous emergence of new viruses made them powerless. The Internet at that time had not yet had time to “break out” from the “embrace” of scientists and the military, and was updated without the availability global network it was almost impossible.

In the mid-80s, the term “Virus Hoax” appeared - “viral hoax”. In the late eighties, users were terrified of viruses: myths about programs that disable PC hardware troubled the mind of every computer owner. Virus Hoax were nothing more than false rumors about new computer epidemics. I remember a story when one joker sent messages to various BBS about the appearance of a new virus that was spreading through modems operating at a transmission speed of 2400 bits per second. To avoid getting infected with a virus, the author recommended switching to modems with a speed of 1200 bps. So what do you think? A lot of users threw away faster modems for the sake of their “security”.

In 1988, the first epidemic caused by a network computer virus occurred. Subsequently, such viruses became known as “worms.” Created by a certain Robert Morris, the program affected computers running UNIX. The creator's plans did not include harming the system; the worm was only supposed to penetrate the ARPAnet network and remain there undetected. The virus had the ability to open passwords in the OS, and in the list of running processes, Morris' brainchild was displayed as a regular user process. The worm rapidly self-reproduced and devoured all free computer resources, resulting in entire servers going down. Some of them were able to return to work only after five days, since there was no vaccine against the worm. During its “walk around the world,” the virus infected about 6,000 computer systems, even affecting the computers of the NASA research center. Robert Morris got away with 400 hours of community service, but went down in history as the author of the first destructive network worm.

90s: polymorphic viruses

In the early 90s of the last century, the English company Sophos, where Jan Hraske, Ed Wilding and Peter Lamer worked, began publishing the Virus Bulletin magazine. Virus Bulletin talked about computer viruses and all aspects of protecting against them. The authors of the magazine were programmers, heads of antivirus companies, and software developers. The magazine was non-commercial: in its entire history, not a single advertisement was published in it. Because of this, Virus Bulletin was not widely used. Its readers were mainly IT professionals ( information technology), as well as employees of computer companies.

In 1990, a new type of malware appeared - polymorphic viruses. “Polymorphism” was the name given to a technology in which a virus could not be detected by a scanner that looked for viruses using fragments of an already known virus. malicious code. Polymorphism allows programs to generate code during execution, as a result of which the copy of the virus on each new infected computer will be different from the previous one. The first such virus was Chameleon, written by Mark Washburn. After the advent of polymorphic programs, an emulator for decrypting codes, first used by Evgeny Kaspersky, became an integral part of the antivirus.

In the same year, in Bulgaria, which was then the center of world virus writing, a specialized BBS appeared, from which anyone could download malware. Conferences dedicated to virus programming also appeared on UseNet.

At the same time, the book “The Little Black Book of Computer Viruses” by Mark Ludwig was published. It became the “Bible” of all virus creators. The so-called “VX scene” was formed - a community of programmers specializing in creating computer viruses.

Malware designers

In 1992, a hacker known as Dark Avenger released the MtE (Mutation Engine) utility. With its help, any, even the most primitive virus could be made polymorphic. The same person first created the Peach virus, endowed with the ability to bypass antivirus software. Peach deleted the Central Point AntiVirus changebase. This program, not finding its database, believed that it was launched for the first time and created it again. Thus, the virus bypassed the protection and continued to infect the system.

A group of programmers known online as Nowhere Man has released a virus designer called VCL (Virus Creation Laboratory). From now on, any schoolchild, even those who do not know programming languages, could arm themselves with a constructor and assemble a virus of any type and destructive power. With the advent of VCL, the already considerable “flow” of new computer pests has become simply enormous. Is it any wonder that a few days after the release of Windows 3.11, the first destructive program for this platform appeared? Win.Vir_1_4 was amazing executable files operating system, rendering some of them unusable.

The first virus writer to be arrested

During 1993-94, new virus designers saw the light of day: PS-MPC and G2. The malware they generate has become the most common threat on the Internet.

At the same time, there was a real “boom” among antivirus manufacturers - their programs finally became a mandatory component of almost any OS. Even Microsoft decided to enter the security market with the release of Microsoft AntiVirus (MSAV). The program was initially popular, but the largest software manufacturer in the world subsequently stopped developing the product.

The leadership in this area was gradually gained by Symantec, which became part of the largest manufacturers of anti-virus software: Central Point and Fifth Generation Systems.

The epidemic of a new polymorphic virus, Pathogen, was no longer an out of the ordinary event; everyone had already begun to get used to such events. However, this was the first virus whose author was found and convicted. Unemployed Christopher Pyle was sentenced to 18 months in prison for creating malware.

Attack on Microsoft

In 1995, all operating disks sent to beta testers Windows system 95 were infected with the Form boot virus. Fortunately, one of them discovered something was wrong, and a normal, uninfected system arrived on store shelves.

In August of the same year, the first macro virus appeared, written in the WordBasic language built into text editor MS Word. The Concept macrovirus infected hundreds of thousands of computers around the globe, as a result of which it was a leader in statistical studies of computer magazines for a long time.

In 1996, Windows 95 users experienced the first epidemic - their computers were infected with the Boza boot virus. In July of the same year, the creators of macro viruses switched from Word to the MS Excel spreadsheet editor, releasing the Laroux virus for it.

It didn’t take long for resident viruses to appear, using the services of the “zero ring” of the OS. Win95.Punch loaded into the system as a VxD driver, intercepted access to files and infected them.

Antivirus squabbles

By 1997, the operating room Linux system, previously considered a bastion of “purity and stability,” was no longer a virus-free platform. Linux.Bliss, distributed through UseNet conferences, infected executable files of this OS.

The same year saw the emergence of two new types of worms, spreading through IRC and FTP. IRC could “boast” of a particularly large number of them, largely due to its popularity, as well as the numerous “holes” of mIRC, the main client of such networks.

At the end of the twentieth century, in the pursuit of leadership, scandals among antivirus manufacturers became common. Thus, representatives of the McAfee company announced that its programmers had discovered a bug in the Dr. Solomon’s antivirus. The essence of the statement was that Dr. Solomon’s could find new and technically advanced viruses only in a special “enhanced” mode, which it switched to only after finding ordinary, primitive worms. As a result, the antivirus showed good speed results when scanning uninfected disks, and excellent detection rates when working with infected files. In response, Dr.Solomon`s filed a lawsuit against McAfee, the cause of which was its “incorrectly constructed advertising campaign.” As a result, the whole “mess” ended with McAfee purchasing a controlling stake in Dr. Solomon`s.

Some time later, Taiwanese developers from Trend Micro made a public statement, accusing McAfee and Symantec of allegedly “violating their data scanning patent.” The world was immediately presented with evidence of the “sinlessness” of the companies, but Trend Micro achieved its goal by receiving excellent free advertising in the media.

The most destructive viruses

Continue detailed history computer viruses up to the present day does not make sense, since hundreds and thousands of new malware appear every year. I will limit myself to just a brief story about the most famous viruses that appeared after 1997:

CIH (1998)– the damage caused by the virus amounted to about $80 million. The virus was written by a programmer from Taiwan, and became one of the most destructive in history. “Sneeze” infected executable files and was activated every year on April 26, the anniversary of the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. CIH overwrote FlashBIOS, after which motherboards became unusable. The first and last virus that harmed PC hardware.

Melissa (1999)– On March 26, 1999, this macro virus, distributed by email, infected about 20% of office computers around the world. Largest corporations, such as Intel, were forced to stop working within their local networks. Damage - from 300 to 500 million dollars.

ILOVEYOU (2000)– a script written in a macro language Visual Basic. Just like Melissa, it was distributed via email with the subject line “I love you.” The virus sent copies of itself to all address book data mail client. All logins and passwords found by the worm on the computer were sent to the author of the program. The latter, by the way, did not try to hide: he is a resident of the Philippines, where there are no penalties for computer crimes.

Code Red (2001)– a network worm that exploits a bug in the Microsoft IIS network service. On a given day, the infected computers were to launch a DDOS attack on a list of different servers, including US government systems. The huge scale of the epidemic and, as a result, losses of 2.5 billion (!) dollars.

Blaster (2003)– a network worm that displayed a message on infected computers about the need to reboot. A couple of days after its release on the Internet (August 11), millions of computers around the world were infected.

Sobig.F (2003)– a network worm that spread via email. The virus, which multiplied at a tremendous speed, downloaded additional files onto the infected computer, “burning” traffic and system resources. An interesting feature is that on September 10, the virus ceased its activity, no longer posing a threat to the user. The author of Sobig.F, about whom Microsoft offered $250 thousand for information, has not yet been found.

Bagle (2004)– a network worm that spread using the classic method, using file attachments in emails. A special “loophole” was installed on the infected computer, through which the attacker gained full access to the system. The virus has more than a hundred modifications.

MyDoom (2004)– in January 2004, this virus spread like lightning throughout the Internet, as a result of which the average loading speed of sites on the global network decreased by 50%. The worm holds the record for the speed of spread: in less than 24 hours, about two million computers were infected. Due to the scale of the epidemic, it is impossible to give an exact figure. The virus was created by an unknown programmer as an experiment, and ceased its activity on February 12 of the same year.

Sasser (2004)– the virus caused a “break” in the work of French satellite channels data transmission, canceled flights of some airlines, not to mention ordinary computers, whose work was completely suspended. Sasser was distributed due to a bug in the system Windows security 2000 and XP, running a port scanner on the infected computer. The virus was written by a 17-year-old German schoolboy. An interesting fact is that the guy released the virus into the network on his coming of age day.

There is no end

The history of computer viruses is not fully written, and continues today. Perhaps, while you are reading these lines, some provincial programmer is writing a new virus, even more cunning and destructive than all of the above.

Well, we can only rely on the mercy of antivirus manufacturing companies and monitor the security of our systems.

Application

Viruses for mobile devices

In 2000, a virus was first discovered for the PalmOS platform. The Phage.936 program moved between PDAs during infrared transmission. When a PDA was infected, some files could be deleted, and applications often closed spontaneously. Since then, several dozen viruses have appeared for various PDA platforms, although they are not as diverse and “flexible” as their “brothers” for personal computers.

Today, malware for smartphones is not surprising. The first virus for the Symbian OS was the Cabir virus. It did not perform any destructive actions and was created only to demonstrate the potential susceptibility of mobile devices to virus attacks and epidemics. The worm spread through Bluetooth connections. Time will tell how much longer we have to wait before truly destructive viruses for mobile devices appear.

1. http://www.viruslist.com/ru – virus encyclopedia, description of all viruses. News and analytical reviews.
2. http://vx.netlux.org – magazines, articles about viruses. Source codes and guidance.

Dmitry Moroz

Software can be different: useful and not very useful. In the latter case we are talking about the notorious computer viruses. Computer virus- a malicious program that can reproduce copies of itself and independently penetrate (inject its copies) into the code of other programs, databases, boot sectors hard drive etc. Moreover, this type of software is not limited to “penetration”. The ultimate goal of most computer viruses is to cause some harm to the recipient. The harmfulness of computer viruses comes down to deleting files, seizing part of a computer’s disk space, blocking the work of its users, hacking personal data, etc.

Oh, however, not all viruses for computers so hostile. Some of them simply display harmless messages of humorous, advertising or political content on the monitor screen. This does not cause any harm to the computer. The same cannot be said about the user, whose nervous system is subjected to a certain test. A test that not all of us can cope with. Severed mice, mutilated keyboards and broken monitors in the videos are clear proof of this.

As you probably already guessed, our conversation today will focus on the history of computer viruses.

Why “virus”?

Let me start with the history of the name “computer virus.” Why “virus” and not, say, “disease” or “injury”? The answer is simple - it’s all about the striking similarity in the mechanism of spread of biological and computer viruses. Just as a biological virus hijacks a body cell, reproduces itself in it and then occupies a new cell, a computer virus works in the same way. Having penetrated a particular program, creating a certain number of copies of itself, the malicious software begins to take over other areas of the computer and then moves to the next device. Agree, the analogy is more than obvious. Actually, that’s why it’s a “virus”. True, not biological, but computer.

It is not known for certain who and when was the first to use this phrase. Therefore, without claiming to be the ultimate truth, I will voice the name of the person who is most often mentioned in this context. This (pictured on the right) is an astrophysicist and, part-time, science fiction writer from the USA. Many believe that it is in his story "The Scarred Man"(1970) the word "virus" was first used to refer to a computer program.

No theory - no viruses!

As often happens, word and deed diverge noticeably over time. In our case, this can be confirmed by the fact that the justification of the theoretical foundations for the creation and functioning of self-reproducing computer programs(viruses) took place decades before the phrase itself appeared.

Back in 1949, at the University of Illinois, an American mathematician of Hungarian origin John von Neumann taught a course of lectures on the topic “Theory and organization of complex automatic devices.” Subsequently, the famous scientist summarized his lecture materials and published a scientific work in 1951 with a similar title, “The Theory of Self-Reproducing Automatic Devices.” In his work, John von Neumann described in detail the mechanism for creating a computer program that could reproduce itself during operation.

Von Neumann's scientific research served as the main impetus for the practical creation of computer viruses in the future, and the scientist himself is rightfully considered the father-theorist of computer virology.

Developing the American theory, a German researcher Veit Rizak in 1972 he published the article “Self-reproducing automatic devices with minimal information exchange." In it, the scientist describes the mechanism of operation of a full-fledged virus written in Assembly language for computer SIEMENS systems 4004/35.

Another important scientific work in this area is considered to be a graduate diploma from the University of Dortmund Jurgen Kraus. In 1980, in his graduation work “Self-Reproducing Programs,” the young researcher revealed theoretical issues, described self-replicating programs for the SIEMENS computer that already existed at that time, and was the first to focus on the fact that computer programs are similar to biological viruses.

An observant reader may notice that the scientific research mentioned above concerned the development of exclusively “peace-loving” computer programs capable of reproducing themselves. The theorists did not even think about the harmfulness of their “patients”. This was done for them by others who recognized in time the enormous potential of this type of program for “damaging” computers and other equipment. But that was later, but for now let’s move on from theory to practice.

The first swallows

We have what John von Neumann, a group of employees of an American company, spoke and wrote about Bell Laboratories in 1961 created an original game for IBM 7090 computers Darwin. During this game, a certain number of assembler programs (“organisms”) were loaded into the computer’s memory. Organisms belonging to one player had to absorb the organisms of another player, while capturing more and more game space. The victory was celebrated by the player whose organisms captured the entire game memory.

For those of you, dear readers, who want to get acquainted in detail with the chronology of the emergence of famous computer viruses on the planet, I can recommend it in English. There you will find numerous interesting facts about “proto-viruses” (for example, Jerusalem/1987 or Morris worm/1988) and update your knowledge about the latest malware (for example, the “Trojan horse” Game Over/2013). Of course, if you are fluent in English.

Virus is different from virus!

Over the years that have passed since the appearance of the first computer virus, the main types (types) of malicious software have emerged. I will briefly discuss each of them.

Classification of computer viruses:

• Network worm- a type of “hostile” software that is capable of spreading independently using local or global computer networks. The first representative is the already mentioned Morris worm.


• Trojan horse, Trojan- a type of computer virus distributed (downloaded into a PC) directly by a person. Unlike a worm, a Trojan cannot spontaneously take over a particular computer. The first Trojan horse was the AIDS computer virus in 1989.


• Polymorphic computer virus- malware that has an increased level of protection against detection. In other words, it is a computer virus created using a special programming technique that allows it to remain undetected for longer. The first polymorphic virus was Chameleon (1990).


• Stealth virus- a computer virus capable of partially or completely hiding its presence at the place of download and activation. In fact, it is an invisible virus, the key difference between which and a polymorphic virus is the method of camouflage. The mechanism for hiding the presence of a stealth virus is to intercept calls to operating system from antivirus software. Frodo (1990) is considered to be the progenitor of this group of computer viruses.

If something is being done, it means someone needs it

What are the goals of the creators of computer viruses? Yes, very different. For the most part, if you believe Western analysts, we are talking about disabling the computer equipment of competitors/enemies or kidnapping cash, which belong to persons attacked by the virus.

However, there are other, sometimes quite interesting, reasons for the development of computer viruses. Some figures spread politics through a virus. Others, filled with concern for others, use it to point out the vulnerability of certain software. There are even people who, observing the consequences of a viral attack, receive perverted human pleasure. Having fun, in a word.

We also cannot discount the role of developers in the creation and distribution of computer viruses. Some may wonder: how can this be? And so! Every year, losses from virus attacks in the world are estimated at billions of US dollars. The capitalization of the international market for paid anti-virus software also amounts to billions. You can come to a simple thought: this is an inexhaustible gold mine. First, the virus is created (albeit with the help of intermediaries), and then it is effectively treated by the customer. For money.

This is nothing new. Especially if you remember what caring activists reproach transnational pharmaceutical companies for. Then you can find a sound grain in my speculations. And not even one.

Briefly summarizes the history of computer viruses. Be careful and may happiness, health and three bags of money be with you.

A few decades ago, computer viruses were more of an urban legend than a real threat, but over the years the situation has changed dramatically. Nowadays, malware (popularly referred to as viruses) poses a major threat to everyone and everything - from governments and large international corporations to small businesses and Internet users.

Created by people ranging from experienced hackers to hobbyists and even children, computer viruses are malicious programs that - when executed - create copies of themselves, embedding themselves in the code of other computer programs, in data files, or in the boot sector of a hard drive.

Viruses often perform certain types of malicious activities on infected hosts: they “eat up” hard disk space, consume other system resources, gain access to confidential information, damage data structures, display political or humorous messages on the user’s screen, spam, install their own keyloggers (programs that record keystrokes on the keyboard) and much more.

There is no need to say that malware is a strong irritant, which, moreover, can lead to very sad consequences. Informed means armed, we thought and compiled a list of 25 for you interesting facts about computer viruses.

There is not a single person in the world who does not risk becoming the target of a virus attack (regardless of how powerful his antivirus is). Therefore, the more you know, the better.

25. The very first computer virus was Creeper, discovered on the ARPANET computer network, the predecessor of the Internet, in the early 1970s. It was an experimental self-moving program written in 1971 by Bob Thomas, an employee of BBN Technologies.

24. There are currently 3 main categories of malware: viruses, worms and Trojan horses. Although their behavior differs from each other, they are all built on the same basic commands and computer logic.

23. The typical malware creator is a male between the ages of 14 and 25. So far, only a few female virus program creators are known.

22. Almost 70% of virus creators work under contract for organized crime groups.

21. The Melissa macrovirus and network worm (March 1999) was so powerful that it forced Microsoft Corporation and other large companies to disable their email systems until it is completely destroyed. The Melissa virus has broken all records for its speed of spread.

20. Before the advent of local computer networks, most viruses spread through various removable media, in particular through floppy disks. With the advent of the first personal computers, most users regularly exchanged information and programs recorded on floppy disks.

19. According to the Microsoft Security Intelligence Report and Consumer Reports, 40% of US households are affected by computer viruses.

18. Amazon.com is the most exploited target for phishing attacks. It is followed by Apple and eBay.

17. The United States has the highest risk of being attacked by computer viruses, followed by Russia.

16. However, writing a computer virus is not considered illegal in the United States. Some other countries are starting to draft cybercrime laws that are stricter than those in the States.

In Germany, for example, the mass sharing of computer viruses for any reason is prohibited, and in Finland, writing malware has recently become illegal.

15. With the constant increase in the number of computer viruses and hackers, new types of computer crimes are emerging. Today, so-called cybercrime carries out a wide range of activities such as cyber terrorism, cyber extortion and cyber warfare.

14. Nowadays, more than 6,000 new computer viruses are created and launched every month.

13. The most destructive computer virus of all time was the MyDoom email worm. It caused $38 billion in damage. It spread quickly, infecting open networks and every computer with access to them. In 2004, this virus infected 25% of all emails.

12. Becoming a member of the famous international hacker network Anonymous is actually very easy. For this reason, only a few of them are elite hackers who are able to exploit security vulnerabilities in computer systems and write virus programs.

11. You will not infect your computer with a virus just by reading an email. Malicious program It is activated only when you open a link or an infected attachment to a letter.

10. It is estimated that up to 90% of emails contain malware.

9. By 1990, about 50 computer viruses were known. In the late 1990s, the number of viruses increased sharply to 48,000.

8. Some authors may actually be children who create them just to test their programming skills.

7. About 32% of all computers in the world (that is, almost every third computer) are infected with some kind of malware.

6. To discover its vulnerabilities, Facebook pays $500 to anyone who can hack the system.

5. Despite the best efforts of researchers and developers in the field of computer security, there is currently no antivirus program, which could detect all computer viruses.

4. Viruses can be written in a variety of programming languages, including assembly language, scripting languages ​​(such as Visual Basic or Perl), Java, and macro programming languages ​​(such as VBA).

3. One of the three main types of malware, Trojan horse, gets its name from the ancient Greek story of a wooden horse that was used to help Greek troops sneak into Troy.

2. Created by Filipino programmers Reonel Ramones and Onel de Guzman in 2000, the computer virus known as ILOVEYOU or LoveLetter became the most destructive virus in the world (making it into the Guinness Book of Records). It is estimated that the virus infected more than 3 million computers around the world.

1. Modern computer viruses cause billions of dollars in economic damage every year by causing system crashes, consuming computer system resources, corrupting data, increasing computer maintenance costs, and so on.