The History of Malware
Public Malware Proliferates
In 1987, The Vienna virus spread widely amongst IBM computers. For the first time, however, someone was able to neutralize the virus. Rolf Burger, one of the suspected authors, forwarded the virus to Bernt Vix, who neutralized the virus. This marked the first time someone had neutralized a computer virus--and was a precursor to today's modern antivirus measures. Multiple other IBM-compatible viruses also appeared in 1987, including:
- The Suriv viruses - Developed in Israel; read the name backwards
- The Lehigh virus, named for where it was first detected (University of Pennsylvania)
- Boot-sector viruses in multiple countries
- Cascade - the first self-encrypting virus
There is a nearly inexhaustible history of viruses from 1987 onwards, but let's skip to more current malware problems.