34 years of viruses
Posted by: Jon Ben-Mayor on 09/02/2014 11:25 AM
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I have been a bit under the weather of late; infected by a virus, so since I have infection on the mind, I compiled a list of some of the most noteworthy computer viruses of the last 34 years - enjoy!
1980-81: The Elk Cloner - which was pretty much just a prank contained on a computer game disk. The 15 year old author, Richard Skrenta, passed the disk out to his friends - the disk allowed them to freely play for 49 sessions, but on the 50th attempt users were attacked with a blank screen and a poem:
It will get on all your disks. It will infiltrate your chips
Yes it’s the Cloner!
It will stick to you like glue. It will modify RAM too
Send in the Cloner!
The Elk Cloner is thought to be the first computer virus – Skrenta was never charged. If this happened today, he would be in Federal prison for 15-20 years.
1986: PC-Write Trojan – Masqueraded as "version 2.72" of the shareware word processor PC-Write. Quicksoft did not release a version 2.72.
1987: Christmas Worm – Was the first widely disruptive computer worm, which paralyzed several international computer networks, including IBM mainframes, in December 1987.
1989: AIDS Trojan - Also known as Aids Info Disk or PC Cyborg Trojan, is a trojan horse that replaces the AUTOEXEC.BAT file, which would then be used by AIDS to count the number of times the computer has booted. Once this boot count reaches 90, AIDS hides directories and encrypts the names of all files on drive C: (rendering the system unusable), at which time the user is asked to 'renew the license' and contact PC Cyborg Corporation for payment (which would involve sending 189 US$ to a post office box in Panama).
1990: Little Black Book - Infected AT&T's long distance switching systems by syncing viruses.
1991: Tequila - Nasty little bug which was able to change itself in order to avoid detection.
1997: Michelangelo - The virus was designed to infect DOS systems, but did not engage the operating system or make any OS calls. Michelangelo, like all boot sector viruses, basically operated at the BIOS level. Each year, the virus remained dormant until March 6, the birthday of Renaissance artist Michelangelo. There is no reference to the artist in the virus, but due to the name and date of activation it is very likely that the virus writer intended Michelangelo to be referenced to the virus.
1999: Chernobyl - One of the most damaging viruses, overwriting critical information on infected system drives, and more importantly, in most cases overwriting the system BIOS.
1999: Melissa - also known as "Mailissa", "Simpsons", "Kwyjibo", or "Kwejeebo", is a mass-mailing macro virus which caused $80 Million in damage. David L. Smith was arrested and served 26 months.
2004: Trojan.Xombe - Pretended to be an official Microsoft update message, once executed it would proceed to steal personal information stored on the unfortunate users computer.
2004: MyDoom - Also known as W32.MyDoom@mm, Novarg, Mimail.R and Shimgapi is a computer worm affecting Microsoft Windows. Mydoom appears to have been commissioned by e-mail spammers so as to send junk e-mail through infected computers. The worm contains the text message "andy; I'm just doing my job, nothing personal, sorry," leading many to believe that the worm's creator was paid. Early on, several security firms expressed their belief that the worm originated from a programmer in Russia. The actual author of the worm is unknown.
Sources: Wikipedia and Uncle John's Bathroom Reader
1980-81: The Elk Cloner - which was pretty much just a prank contained on a computer game disk. The 15 year old author, Richard Skrenta, passed the disk out to his friends - the disk allowed them to freely play for 49 sessions, but on the 50th attempt users were attacked with a blank screen and a poem: It will get on all your disks. It will infiltrate your chips
Yes it’s the Cloner!
It will stick to you like glue. It will modify RAM too
Send in the Cloner!
The Elk Cloner is thought to be the first computer virus – Skrenta was never charged. If this happened today, he would be in Federal prison for 15-20 years.
1986: PC-Write Trojan – Masqueraded as "version 2.72" of the shareware word processor PC-Write. Quicksoft did not release a version 2.72.
1987: Christmas Worm – Was the first widely disruptive computer worm, which paralyzed several international computer networks, including IBM mainframes, in December 1987.
1989: AIDS Trojan - Also known as Aids Info Disk or PC Cyborg Trojan, is a trojan horse that replaces the AUTOEXEC.BAT file, which would then be used by AIDS to count the number of times the computer has booted. Once this boot count reaches 90, AIDS hides directories and encrypts the names of all files on drive C: (rendering the system unusable), at which time the user is asked to 'renew the license' and contact PC Cyborg Corporation for payment (which would involve sending 189 US$ to a post office box in Panama).
1990: Little Black Book - Infected AT&T's long distance switching systems by syncing viruses.
1991: Tequila - Nasty little bug which was able to change itself in order to avoid detection.
1997: Michelangelo - The virus was designed to infect DOS systems, but did not engage the operating system or make any OS calls. Michelangelo, like all boot sector viruses, basically operated at the BIOS level. Each year, the virus remained dormant until March 6, the birthday of Renaissance artist Michelangelo. There is no reference to the artist in the virus, but due to the name and date of activation it is very likely that the virus writer intended Michelangelo to be referenced to the virus.
1999: Chernobyl - One of the most damaging viruses, overwriting critical information on infected system drives, and more importantly, in most cases overwriting the system BIOS.
1999: Melissa - also known as "Mailissa", "Simpsons", "Kwyjibo", or "Kwejeebo", is a mass-mailing macro virus which caused $80 Million in damage. David L. Smith was arrested and served 26 months.
2004: Trojan.Xombe - Pretended to be an official Microsoft update message, once executed it would proceed to steal personal information stored on the unfortunate users computer.
2004: MyDoom - Also known as W32.MyDoom@mm, Novarg, Mimail.R and Shimgapi is a computer worm affecting Microsoft Windows. Mydoom appears to have been commissioned by e-mail spammers so as to send junk e-mail through infected computers. The worm contains the text message "andy; I'm just doing my job, nothing personal, sorry," leading many to believe that the worm's creator was paid. Early on, several security firms expressed their belief that the worm originated from a programmer in Russia. The actual author of the worm is unknown.
Sources: Wikipedia and Uncle John's Bathroom Reader
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