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The Development of the Computer Virus: A Threat to Cybersecurity
An overview of how computer viruses and worms emerged, spread by floppy disks and networks, and pushed the creation of antivirus tools and security practice.
Communication and Computing
Computer Security
Viruses, worms, firewalls and the history of defending computers.
The Development of the Computer Cybersecurity: A Threat to Global Security
How computer security grew from shared-machine passwords and early encryption into incident response, law and a state-level concern.
The Development of the Computer Firewall: A Cybersecurity Solution
How network firewalls evolved from simple packet filters of the late 1980s to proxies, stateful inspection and the multi-function gateways used today.
The Development of the First Computer Virus: A Digital Menace
Elk Cloner, a 1982 Apple II boot-disk prank, is often called an early virus in the wild. Here is how it worked and how it differs from lab programs and later outbreaks.
The Story of the First Computer Virus
Why a program that copies itself became possible: von Neumann's self-copying automata, stored programs, and the disputed question of which program counts as first.
The Story of the First Computer Virus Scanner: A Cyber Threat
How virus detection began, from Reaper and hand-made removal tools to signature matching, integrity checks and heuristics: the defensive side of the story.
The Story of the First Computer Virus: A Brief History
A compact decade-by-decade virus timeline, from 1970s network experiments through the floppy-disk era to email macros and internet worms.
The Story of the First Computer Virus: A Cyber Threat
How early viruses turned from experiments and pranks into a recognized risk for businesses and ordinary users, told as a history of changing motives.
The Story of the First Computer Virus: The Brain
The 1986 Brain boot-sector virus attributed to two brothers in Lahore: how it spread on floppy disks and what it shows about early piracy and protection.
The Story of the First Computer Virus: The Creeper
The early 1970s Creeper experiment that moved between networked machines, the Reaper program that removed it, and why it is cited as a forerunner of viruses.
The Story of the First Computer Virus: The Morris Worm
The 1988 Morris worm: how it spread across the early internet, why it overloaded machines, the first computer fraud conviction and the birth of emergency response teams.
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