History of Computer Viruses

Malware - The Choice of Spies Everywhere
The email virus Melissa was estimated to have infected more than one million PCs and caused damage in excess of $80 million.

The History of Computer Viruses - History of Malware
Computer viruses have been around for longer than you might think.

History of Computer Viruses
The first vastly spread virus in the West was a bootable one called "Brain", the "Vienna" and "Cascade" file viruses appeared later.

History of Computer Viruses
It was not until the 60s that we find the predecessor of current viruses. In that decade, a group of programmers developed a game called Core Wars, which could reproduce every time it was run, and even saturate the memory of other players' computers.

A Short History of Computer Viruses and Attacks
In 1972, John Draper, soon to be known as "Captain Crunch," discovers that the plastic whistle in a box of breakfast cereal reproduces a 2600-hertz tone unlocking AT&T's phone network, allowing free calls and manipulation of the network.