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computer virus timeline

Here is an interesting story from Joe Wells written in 1996 about computer virus. The following text is actually documented in the IBM Research Archives but contains the early timeline of notable computer viruses of their time.

Where were you in January of 1986?

I remember exactly where I was on January 28. I was driving a truck up the California coast, delivering pet supplies to pet shops. I had stopped briefly in Nipomo and was watching television with the store owner. We watched as Challenger lifted off from Cape Canaveral and exploded. My computer experience at the time was limited to programming assembly language on a Z80 and a Commodore 128. I didn't get a PC until I started an online research service in 1987.

1986 - Up from the ooze

In 1986, the first PC virus was created. It was the Brain virus from Pakistan. Brain was a boot sector virus and only infected 360k floppy disks. Interestingly, even though it was the first virus, it had full-stealth capability.

In December of 1986, a file infecting demo virus was introduced. It was called Virdem and was created in Germany.

Two other demo virus have 1986 copyright notices. These are the Burger virus (Program Virus ver. 1.1 by R. Burger) and the Rush Hour virus by B. Fix.

Click here for the rest of the timeline along with important historical events from 1985 to 1996.

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