Computer Virus hit 20 Years
It was during the opening weeks of 1986 that the first PC virus,w as discovered in the wild. Though it achieved fame because it was the first of its type, the virus was not widespread as it could only travel by hitching a ride on floppy disks swapped between users. Now 20 years after they first appeared there are more than 150,000 malicious programs in existence.
Though it’s origin is still disputed it is thought the virus, known as Brain, was coded by two Pakistani programmers named Basit and Amjad who designed their virus to affect every 360kb floppy inserted into the drive. Four years later a company called Symantec launched the now hugely popular Norton Antivirus.
Within two years the number of malicious programs had increased by 420% to 1300, this was probably helped by creation kits like the Virus Creation Laboratory which was also released in 1992.
Today there are more than 150,000 malicious programs and over 25 major companies specialising in anti-virus software for the Windows platform alone.
BBC
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