This is the person who created the world's first computer virus

No one would have imagined that one of the dangers of today's IT world - computer viruses - was born out of a mischievous joke of a 9th grade student.

The funny joke gave the student Rich Skrenta the title 'the first person in the world to program and spread computer viruses'. Skrenta's friends became 'the first victims of computer viruses'.

And even though 25 years have passed in the mind of ' the 9th grade student ' still remembers the moment he 'gave life and released the Elk Cloner virus into the world of computers ' .

' It was nothing more than a funny joke ,' Skrenta - now in his 50s - confirmed in the press in a recent interview. ' If I were to choose again, I would still choose to be the first person in the world to program and distribute computer viruses. But besides, it was also the worst thing I did . '

Elk Cloner - 'ancestor' of modern computer virus

Rich Skrenta - the first in the world to spread viruses.

Elk Cloner has the ability to replicate but there are very few similarities with other forms of malicious code that exist in today's computer world. Although it is only a past and not dangerous, Elk Cloner is a sign that the emergence of a 'pandemic' has spread all over the world, especially when more and more computers are connected. each other through the Internet.

The joke of 25 years ago also caused 'Skrenta pupil' to lose the trust of his friends, especially when he frequently swapped game disks and computer software with disks containing viruses. When the disc is inserted into the reading drive, instead of starting the game or the software, it shows the screened mocking words. Many of Skrenta's friends refused to accept the plates he gave them.

Skrenta spent a winter vacation to figure out how to 'hack' his Apple II computer to find the code needed to start up that automatically displays mockery on the PC screen.

As a result, 'student Skrenta' has 'invented' a virus that is known today as 'boot sector virus'. Whenever the PC starts up Elk Cloner will automatically copy a copy of it into the system memory. If users insert a clean floppy disk into the system and use the 'catalog' command to view the file list stored on disk, they will unknowingly open the door to allow Elk Cloner to infect the disk. This disc is then handed to one person after another. That's the way Elk Cloner spreads.

Elk Cloner's goal is to annoy Skrenta's friends, not to the PC, as many computer viruses do today. If the Elk Cloner floppy disk is used consecutively 50 times, instead of displaying a mocking sentence, a poem appears on the screen, saying: ' It will get on all your disks; it will infiltrate your chips . ' (The virus has infiltrated all the drives on your PC and now it will attack the chip directly.)

In early 1982 Skrenta began to spread Elk Cloner virus in the school community of friends and at some computer clubs where he lived. Years of Skrenta still hear about Elk Cloner's new victims. Even nearly a decade after the first day Elk Cloner was released, there were still people who became victims of the virus - a sailor who joined the first Gulf war.

The first virus to attack Microsoft operating system PCs appeared in 1986. This is the work of two Pakistani brothers. They also successfully programed a 'boot sector virus' - named Brain - with the goal of punishing all those who use 'pirated' software. However, Brain does not cause any significant harm to infected PCs.

On a dangerous

So far the computer virus family has reached hundreds of thousands, millions. And the development of the Internet has created a way to spread new computer viruses. It is email.

Melissa (1999), Love Bug (2000) and SoBig (2003) are among the first viruses to spread via email path by tricking users into clicking on the attachment. They actually caused great damage on a large scale thanks to the ability to manually send a copy to addresses stored on the infected PC.

Computer viruses appear more and more dangerous in the future, besides the goal of disabling network systems, the virus now aims to destroy documents, steal data, personal information, encrypt documents to ransom, web site crashes, network .

"In terms of technology, today's computer viruses are not much different from the first computer viruses in the world," said Richard Ford, a professor of IT at Florida Institute of Technology. is between them the ability to destroy and damage. '

Today there are also viruses spreading through instant messaging and peer-to-peer file-sharing networks. There are also some distributions through exploiting the network functional vulnerabilities of the Windows operating system.

The goal of modern viruses today is also very different. Instead of joking, causing widespread damage, bringing reputation to hackers, the virus now aims to steal personal data, ransom, send spam . All aim at the target. The only thing is to serve as a motive to profit from hackers' illegal finance. Viruses now spread purposefully, they target very specific objects.

Besides viruses today there are countless other types of malware. They don't have the ability to replicate themselves, but they can easily break into PCs through a way to entice users to access a malicious website or take advantage of software security holes.

Dave Marcus, director of research at security firm McAfee, said today there is no such thing as a powerful online virus, but the number of malicious code is booming in a very powerful way.

The battle between security and malicious code is a 'cat-chasing' battle. When the security industry found a way to fight against the emerging virus, hackers were able to launch new technology through them. Not only the malicious code today can also attack multi-device platforms such as mobile devices, web services, social networks .

Fred Cohen, a security expert, wrote in his doctoral thesis in 1986 as follows. ' As the number of PCs grows, the computer virus grows. The only problem is time, when it will happen . '

And in the age of digital booms, the Internet has grown, technology devices have grown so rapidly, what Fred Cohen has written is probably becoming a reality, when computer security news , network security is rarely absent on technology newspaper pages .

The famous computer viruses 1. Elk Cloner (1982)

2. Brain (1986)

3. Morris (1988) is the work of a good student at Cornell University (USA). It is estimated that 6,000 PCs of universities and military forces have become Morris victims.

4. Melissa (1999) is the first computer virus to spread via email. If the user clicks on the attachment, Melissa will automatically send a copy of it to the first 50 people in the directory that are available on the infected PC.

5. Love Bug (2000) attacked by hitting the interest of a web user event, starting a social engineering trend.

6. Code Red (2001) attacks through a Microsoft software security hole. This is one of the first "worm" in the world. To spread it needs to be connected on a network. Software bugs so far have not been disclosed.

7. Blaster (2003) attacks through a known vulnerability in Microsoft software. This has made the world's number one software company "angry" offering to pay anyone to disclose information about the person who programmed the virus.

8. SASSER (2004) attacked through a Microsoft software security hole. Once infected, the PC will be restarted continuously. This is one of the most dangerous viruses, but it doesn't get much attention.

Hoang Dung

See more:

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2. Distinguish malware, viruses and Trojan horses
3. Summary of the most frightening "virus worms" on computer systems