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The Elk Cloner Virus
This virus was the first to spread outside of a laboratory. It was created by 15 year old Rich Skentra as a prank for his friend's computers. They became infected. -
The Creeper Virus, Aw Man
This virus would spread between computers connected to ARPANET and made the monitor say, "I'm the Creeper, catch me if you can." David Harley, an IT consultant calls the "Experimental program Creeper, to be the first virus and/or worm" -
The Rabbit Virus
This virus had very malicious intent, once it infected your computer, it would replicate itself very quickly and would crash the machine. The speed of it replicating itself was how it came to be called the Rabbit Virus. -
The First Trojan Virus
This Trojan virus (A virus hiding inside of a program) was installed inside of a quiz game, ANIMAL and would go through all of the computer directories and made a copy of ANIMAL in any directory where it wasn't present. -
The Cohen Virus
This virus could install itself from hidden inside a Unix program and took control of the computer within minutes.It would copy and paste itself into other connected devices. -
Brain Virus
No, this virus doesn't affect your brain, but it does affect your computer. This virus was created by two Pakistani brothers who wanted to infect the computers that downloaded pirated IBM software from them. This virus came with the brother's contact information so the person could request a cure. The virus didn't do much to the computer. -
Antivirus Companies are Born
Due to the influx of viruses, antivirus companies became something that people needed. Now, antivirus companies annoy us with ads at the bottom of our computer screen with messages, asking us to download them. -
Robert Morris' Accidental Devastation
Robert Morris created a worm that would infect computers connected to the old Internet and it affected research institutions especially. This caused a drop in email services as well. Its effects were worse than Morris thought they were going to be. Morris became the first person to be prosecuted in the US under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. -
The LoveLetter Virus
Unlike the previous viruses, this one spread though Email. The user would receive an email that read "I LOVE YOU". The user would open the Email and click on the document inside which read ILOVEYOU. The virus would overwrite existing files and then copy itself into them and then send itself to the user's contacts. -
The Code Red Virus
This virus was a worm, and it was a worm without a file. It was only in the memory of computers and didn't infect any files on the computer. It would take advantage of a flaw in the Microsoft Internet Information Center and would take over the protocols that allowed the computer to communicate with other computers. It spread around the world in just a few hours. The infected machines were used to launch an attack on the White house website, launching a denial of service. -
WannaCry Ransomware
WannaCry is a very scary virus. It would infect Windows computers and encrypt files, making them impossible for the user to access them. Then it demands a payment in BitCoin for it to uncrypt them. https://usa.kaspersky.com/resource-center/threats/a-brief-history-of-computer-viruses-and-what-the-future-holds -
GandCrab
This virus is another Ransomware virus. GandCrab would spead by malvertisements, false advertisements that would take you to unsafe sites, where the virus can infect the system. It will start encrypting anything personal or valuable. Then it asks for a ransom to un-encrypt them. https://tweaklibrary.com/cyber-threat-latest-computer-virus/#GandcrabRansomware -
Viruses of the Future-Moker
Moker is a very recently developed virus which gives us a look into the future of viruses. This virus is hard to detect, and to get rid of. It also bypasses all known defenses. -
Viruses of the Future-Near Future
In the near future, I think that viruses will be used as somewhat terrorist attacks, attacking government websites and technology. That is a really scary thought. Imagine a terrorist organization sending government missile technology your way. -
Viruses of the Future-Far Future
In the far future, I think viruses will be almost eradicated, but the ones that still exist, will be life threatening. Imagine that you are on your hover bike, on the way to school, when someone hacks all of the bikes in your city, and reprograms them to drive into a lake. You don't notice because you are on the internet with your smart-glasses on. That is scary.
