For comfortable and safe work at the computer, you must have a minimum of knowledge to ensure the protection of personal data. To do this, first of all, you need to know what is computer virus. It must also be remembered that the best remedy dealing with it is antivirus software.

The definition of a computer virus is as follows: "A computer virus is software with the ability to copy itself, inject into system code, and other software products, as well as causing irreparable damage to the hardware of the computer and information stored on its media.

The main purpose of any virus is to harm, steal information or monitor a computer. Other actions of computer viruses are also traced. The propensity to breed allows you to deal maximum damage. The fact that viruses can reproduce not only within a local machine, but also travel across networks, including global ones, suggests that outbreaks of computer virus epidemics are possible.

Phases and states characteristic of computer viruses

• Passive existence: in this state, the virus is recorded on HDD, but takes no action until the conditions specified by the programmer are met.
• Reproduction: a condition in which a virus creates an uncountable number of copies of itself and is placed on the computer's hard drive, as well as transmitted to the local network with service packages.
• Active existence: in this mode, the virus begins to fulfill its purpose - to destroy, copy data, artificially occupy disk space and absorb RAM.

How did computer viruses originate?

Officially, the history of computer viruses begins in 1981. Computer Engineering was in its infancy. Back then, no one knew what a computer virus was. Richard Skrenta wrote the first boot virus for the Apple II computer. He was relatively harmless and displayed a poem. Later, viruses for MS-DOS also began to appear. In 1987, three epidemics of viruses were recorded at once. This was facilitated by the entry into the market of a relatively inexpensive IBM computer and the growth of computerization in general around the globe.

The first outbreak was caused by the Brain malware, or "Pakistan Virus". It was developed by the Alvi brothers to punish users who use hacked versions of their software. The brothers did not expect the virus to spread outside of Pakistan, but it did, and computers around the world were infected with the Brain virus.

The second outbreak occurred at Lehigh University in the United States of America, and several hundred floppy disks in the university's computer center library were destroyed. The epidemic was of medium scale for those times, and the virus affected only 4,000 computers.

The third virus - Jerusalem arose in several countries of the world at once. The virus destroyed all files at once at their start. Among the epidemics of 1987-1988, this was the largest.

1990 was the starting point for an active fight against viruses. By this time, many programs that harmed computers had already been written, but until the 90s this was not a big problem.

In 1995, complex viruses began to appear, and there was an incident in which all disks with a beta version of Windows 95 were infected with viruses.

Today, the expression "computer virus" has become familiar to everyone, and the malware industry is rapidly growing and developing. New viruses appear daily: computer, telephone, and now viruses for watches. In defiance of them, various companies produce protective systems, but computers are still infected in all corners of the world.

Ebola computer virus

Ebola computer virus is very relevant today. Hackers send it to e-mail hiding behind the names of well-known companies. The virus infects the software installed on computers and is able to very quickly remove everything that is installed on the machine. In addition, it can multiply, including over a local network. Thus, "Ebola" is considered one of the most dangerous objects today.

Malware classification

Computer viruses are classified according to various criteria. Depending on their behavior, they were conditionally divided into 6 categories: by habitat, by code structure features, by the method of infecting a computer, by integrity, by capabilities, and additionally there is a category of unclassified viruses.

By habitat, there are the following types of computer viruses:

• Network- these viruses spread through local or global networks, infecting a huge number of computers around the world.
• File- are introduced into the file, infecting it. The danger begins at the moment of execution of the infected file.
• Boot- are introduced into the boot hard disk and start execution at the time of system boot.

According to the structural features of the code, viruses are divided into:

Viruses are divided into two groups according to the way they infect code:

• Residential- Malicious programs that infect RAM.
• Non-resident- viruses that do not infect RAM.

According to integrity, they are divided into:

• Distributed- programs divided into several files, but having a script for the sequence of their execution.
• Holistic- a single block of programs that is executed by a direct algorithm.

According to their capabilities, viruses are divided into the following four categories:

• Harmless- types of computer viruses that can slow down the computer by multiplying and absorbing free space on the hard drive.
• Non-hazardous- viruses that slow down your computer take up a lot of space random access memory and create sound and graphic effects.
• Dangerous- viruses that can cause serious system failures, from freezing the computer to destroying the operating system.
• Very dangerous- viruses capable of erasing system information, as well as cause physical destruction of the computer by disrupting the power distribution of the main components.

Various viruses that do not fall under the general classification:

• Network worms- viruses that calculate the addresses of available computers on the network and multiply. As a rule, they are classified as harmless viruses.
• Trojans, or trojans. These types of computer viruses got its name in honor of the famous Trojan horse. These viruses masquerade as useful programs. Designed primarily for theft confidential information, but there are varieties of more dangerous representatives of malware.

How to detect a virus on a computer?

Viruses are able to be invisible, but at the same time perform unwanted actions with the computer. In one case, the presence of a virus is almost impossible to detect, and in another, the user observes a number of signs of computer infection.

For those who do not know what a computer virus is, the following computer actions should cause suspicion of a danger:

• The computer started to run slower. Moreover, the slowdown is more than significant.
• The appearance of files that the user did not create. Particular attention should be paid to files that have a character set or an unknown extension instead of an adequate name.
• Suspicious increase in the occupied area of ​​RAM.
• Spontaneous shutdown and restart of the computer, its non-standard behavior, screen flashing.
• Unable to download programs.
• Unexpected errors and crash messages.

All these signs indicate that the computer is most likely infected, and it is urgent to check it for files with malicious code. There is only one way to check your computer for viruses - antivirus software.

Antivirus programs, or antiviruses,- these are software systems that have extensive databases of computer viruses and perform a thorough check of the hard drive for familiar files or code. Antivirus software can disinfect, delete or isolate the file in a designated area.

Ways and methods of protection against malware

Protection against computer viruses is based on technical and organizational methods. Technical methods are aimed at using means to prevent virus threats: antiviruses, firewalls, antispam and, of course, timely updating of the operating system. Organizational - methods that describe the correct behavior of the user at the computer in terms of information security.

Technical methods prevent viruses from entering a computer through software.

Antivirus- control the file system, relentlessly check and look for traces of malicious code. The firewall is designed to control information coming through network channels and block unwanted packets.
The firewall allows you to prohibit certain types of connections by different criteria: ports, protocols, addresses and actions.

Antispam- control the flow junk mail, and when a suspicious message arrives in the mail client, they block the possibility of executing attached files until the user forces them to be executed. There is an opinion that anti-spam is the most inefficient way to fight, but every day they block tens of millions of messages with embedded viruses.

Operating system update- a process in which developers correct errors and shortcomings in the operation of the OS, which are used by programmers to write viruses.

Organizational methods describe the rules for working with a personal computer, processing information, launching and using software, based on four basic principles:

1. Run and open only those documents and files that come from trusted sources, and in the safety of which there is a firm belief. In this case, the user takes responsibility for running this or that program.
2. Check all incoming information from any external sources whether it's the Internet, optical disc or flash drive.
3. Always keep anti-virus databases and the shell version of the threat detection and elimination software up to date. This is due to the fact that anti-virus software developers are constantly improving their products based on the emergence of new viruses;
4. Always agree with the offers of antivirus programs to check the flash drive or hard drive connected to the computer.

With the advent of viruses, programs began to appear that allow them to be found and neutralized. Every day new viruses appear in the world. Troubleshooting computer products are updated several times a day to stay up to date. So, without ceasing, there is a constant fight against computer viruses.

To date, the choice of antivirus programs is very large. New offers appear on the market every now and then, and the most diverse ones: from full-fledged software systems to small subroutines focused on only one type of virus. You can find free or paid term security solutions.

Antiviruses store in their signature databases excerpts from the code of a huge number of dangerous computer systems objects and, during the check, compare the codes of documents and executable files with their base. If a match is found, the antivirus will notify the user and offer one of the security options.

Computer viruses and anti-virus programs are integral parts of each other. There is an opinion that anti-virus programs independently develop dangerous objects for commercial gain.

Antivirus software utilities are divided into several types:

• Programs-detectors. Designed to search for objects infected with one of the currently known computer viruses. Usually, detectors only look for infected files, but in some cases they are able to treat them.
• Auditor programs - these programs remember the state file system, and after a while they check and verify the changes. If the data does not match, the program checks if the suspicious file has been edited by the user. If the result of the scan is negative, a message is displayed to the user about a possible infection of the object.
• Programs-healers- designed to treat programs and entire hard drives.
• Filter programs- check the information coming to the computer from the outside and deny access to suspicious files. As a rule, they display a request to the user. Filter programs are already being implemented in all modern browsers to find a computer virus in a timely manner. This is very effective solution, taking into account the current degree of development of the Internet.

The largest anti-virus complexes contain all the utilities that are combined into one large protective mechanism. Prominent representatives of antivirus software today are: Kaspersky Antivirus, Eset NOD32, Dr.Web, Norton Anti-Virus, Avira Antivir and Avast.

These programs have all the basic features to be called protective software complexes. Some of them have extremely limited free versions, and some are provided only for a monetary reward.

Varieties of antivirus programs

Antiviruses are available for home computers, office networks, file servers and network gateways. Each of them can find and remove viruses, but the main emphasis in different versions such programs are made for their intended purpose. The most complete functionality, of course, is the anti-virus software for the home, which has to perform tasks to protect all possible vulnerabilities.

What to do if you suspect a computer infection?

If it seems to the user that the computer is infected with a virus, first of all, you should not panic, but strictly follow the following sequence of actions:

• Close all programs and files the user is currently working with.
• Run antivirus program(if the program is not installed, install it).
• Find the full scan function and run.
• After the scan is completed, the antivirus will offer the user several options for dealing with detected malicious objects: files - disinfect, malware - delete, what is not deleted - quarantined.
• It is advisable to strictly follow the recommendations of antivirus software.
• After cleaning is complete, restart the scan.

If the antivirus did not find a single threat during the scan, it means that the non-standard operation of the computer is caused by malfunctions in the PC hardware or internal operating system errors, which also happens quite often, especially if the operating system is rarely updated.

Hello again.
The topic of today's article. Types of computer viruses, principles of their work, ways of infection with computer viruses.

What are computer viruses anyway.

A computer virus is a specially written program or assembly of algorithms that is written for the purpose of: making a joke, harming someone's computer, gaining access to your computer, intercepting passwords or extorting money. Viruses can self-copy and infect your programs and files with malicious code, as well as boot sectors.

Kinds malware.

Malicious programs can be divided into two main types.
Viruses and worms.

Viruses- spread through malicious file, which you may have downloaded from the Internet, or may be on a pirated disc, or are often transmitted via Skype under the guise of useful programs(I noticed that schoolchildren often come across the latter, they are allegedly given a mod for a game or cheats, but in fact it can turn out to be a virus that can harm).
The virus introduces its code to one of the programs, or disguises itself separate program in the place where users usually do not go (folders with the operating system, hidden system folders).
The virus cannot start itself unless you run the infected program yourself.
Worms already infect a lot of files on your computer, for example, all .exe file s, system files, boot sectors, etc.
Worms most often penetrate the system on their own, using vulnerabilities in your OS, your browser, or a certain program.
They can penetrate through chats, communication programs such as skype, icq, can be distributed via e-mail.
They can also be on sites, and using the vulnerability of your browser to penetrate your system.
Worms can spread over a local network, if one of the computers on the network becomes infected, it can spread to other computers, infecting all files in its path.
Worms try to write for the most popular programs. For example, now the most popular browser is Chrome, so scammers will try to write under it, and do malicious code to sites under it. Because it is often more interesting to infect thousands of users who use a popular program than a hundred with an unpopular program. Although chrome is constantly improving protection.
The best defense from network worms th is to update your programs and your operating system. Many neglect updates, which they often regret.
A few years ago, I noticed the following worm.

But he obviously did not get through the Internet, but most likely through a pirated disk. The essence of his work was as follows - he created, as it were, a copy of each folder on a computer or on a flash drive. But in fact, he created not a similar folder, but an exe file. When you click on such an exe file, it spread even more throughout the system. And all you had to do was get rid of it, come to a friend with a flash drive, download music from him, and return with a flash drive infected with such a worm and again had to remove it. Whether this virus caused any other harm to the system, I do not know, but soon this virus ceased to exist.

The main types of viruses

In fact, there are many types and varieties of computer threats. And it's impossible to see everything. Therefore, we will consider the most common in recent times and the most unpleasant.
Viruses are:
— File- located in an infected file, activated when the user turns on this program, they cannot be activated themselves.
— Boot- can be loaded windows boot hitting autoload, when inserting a flash drive or the like.
- macro viruses - these are various scripts that may be on the site, they can be sent to you by mail or in Word and Excel documents, they perform certain functions embedded in the computer. Exploit vulnerabilities in your programs.

Types of viruses.
-Trojans
— Spies
- Ransomware
— Vandals
— Rootkits
— Botnet
— Keyloggers
These are the most basic types of threats that you may encounter. But in reality there are many more.
Some viruses can even be combined and contain several types of these threats at once.
- Trojans. The name comes from the Trojan horse. Penetrates your computer under the guise of harmless programs, then it can open access to your computer or send your passwords to the owner.
Lately, Trojans called stealers have become widespread. They can steal saved passwords in your browser, in game mail clients. Immediately after launch, it copies your passwords and sends your passwords to an email or hosting to an attacker. It remains for him to collect your data, then they are either sold or used for their own purposes.
— Spies (spyware) track user actions. What sites the user visits or what the user does on their computer.
- Ransomware. These include Winlockers. The program completely or completely blocks access to the computer and requires money for unlocking, for example, put it on an account or so on. In no case should you send money if you fall for this. The computer will not be unlocked for you, and you will lose money. You have a direct road to the Drweb website, where you can find how to unlock many winlockers by entering a specific code or performing some actions. Some winlockers can disappear for example in a day.
— Vandals can block access to antivirus websites and access to antivirus and many other programs.
— Rootkits(rootkit) - hybrid viruses. They may contain various viruses. They can access your PC, and a person will have full access to your computer, and they can merge into the kernel level of your OS. Came from the world of Unix systems. They can mask various viruses, collect data about the computer and about all computer processes.
— Botnet quite a nasty thing. Botnets are huge networks of infected "zombie" computers that can be used to ddos ​​websites and other cyber attacks using the infected computers. This type is very common and hard to detect, even antivirus companies may not know about their existence for a long time. A lot of people can be infected with them and not even suspect it. You are no exception, and maybe even me.
— Keyloggers(keylogger) - keyloggers. They intercept everything that you enter from the keyboard (websites, passwords) and send them to the owner.

Ways of infection with computer viruses.

main routes of infection.
— Vulnerability of the operating system.

— Vulnerability in the browser

- The quality of the antivirus is lame

— User Stupidity

- Removable media.
OS vulnerability- no matter how hard they try to rivet protection for the OS, security holes are found over time. Most viruses are written under windows as it is the most popular operating system. The best defense is to keep your operating system up to date and try to use the newest version.
Browsers- This happens due to browser vulnerabilities, especially if they are old again. It is also treated with frequent updates. There may also be problems if you download browser plugins from third-party resources.
Antivirus — free antiviruses which have less functionality than paid ones. Although the paid ones do not give 100 results in defense and misfire. But it is desirable to have at least a free antivirus. I already wrote about free antiviruses in this article.
User Stupidity— clicks on banners, follow suspicious links from emails, etc., install software from suspicious places.
Removable media— viruses can be installed automatically from infected and specially prepared flash drives and other removable media. Not so long ago, the world heard about the BadUSB vulnerability.

https://avi1.ru/ - you can buy a very inexpensive promotion in social networks on this site. You will also get really profitable offer to acquire resources for their pages.

Types of infected objects.

Files- They infect your programs, system and regular files.
Boot sectors- resident viruses. They infect, as the name implies, the boot sectors of the computer, attribute their code to the computer's autoload and run at startup operating system. Sometimes they are well disguised, which is difficult to remove from startup.
macros — word documents, excel and the like. I use macros and vulnerabilities Microsoft tools office injects its malicious code into your operating system.

Signs of a computer virus infection.

It is not a fact that the appearance of some of these signs means the presence of a virus in the system. But if they are, it is recommended to check your computer with an antivirus or contact a specialist.
One of the common symptoms is it's a heavy load on the computer. When your computer is running slowly, although you don’t seem to have anything turned on, programs that can heavily load your computer. But if you have an antivirus, note that antiviruses themselves load the computer very well. And in the absence of such software that can load, then more likely there are viruses. In general, I advise you to reduce the number of startup programs in autorun to begin with.

It can also be one of the signs of infection.
But not all viruses can heavily load the system, some are almost difficult to notice changes.
System errors. Drivers stop working, some programs start to work incorrectly or often crash with an error, but let's say this was not noticed before. Or programs start to reboot frequently. Of course, this happens due to antiviruses, for example, the antivirus deleted it by mistake, considering the system file to be malicious, or deleted a really infected file, but it was associated with system files programs and removal caused such errors.

The appearance of ads in browsers or even banners start appearing on the desktop.
The appearance is not standard sounds when the computer is running (squeak, clicks for no reason, and the like).
CD/DVD drive opens by itself, or just starts to read the disc, although the disc is not there.
Prolonged turning on or off of the computer.
Hijacking your passwords. If you notice that various spam is being sent on your behalf, from your mailbox or pages social network, as the probability that the virus entered your computer and transferred the passwords to the owner, if you notice this, I recommend that you check with the antivirus without fail (although it is not a fact that this is how the attacker got your password).
Frequent referral to hard drive . Every computer has an indicator that blinks when you use various programs or when you copy, download, move files. For example, your computer is just turned on but no programs are being used, but the indicator starts blinking frequently, supposedly programs are being used. These are already viruses at the level hard drive.

That's actually considered computer viruses that you can meet on the Internet. But in fact, there are many times more of them, and it is not possible to fully protect yourself, unless you do not use the Internet, do not buy disks, and do not turn on the computer at all.

Actually, like everything progressive, all new ideas are first invented by talented people, science fiction writers and theoretical scientists, and then they are brought to life. This is what happened with computer viruses.

For the first time, people started talking about computer viruses in the late 40s of the XX century. The well-known scientist John von Neumann at New York University gave a series of lectures "The Theory of the Organization of Complex Automata", talking about automata and machines and their ability to copy themselves. Later on, viruses were very often considered in books and films, mainly from the point of view of science fiction. At the same time, some mystical abilities were often assigned to computer viruses. People thought that computer viruses would have artificial intelligence, be able to take over the world and control machines on their own.

In the second half of the last century, scientists were already quite actively experimenting with viruses. But these were exclusively laboratory studies.

The first virus in the "wild" environment, that is, on a computer real users, was created for the PC by Apple only in 1981. This virus was created by a 15-year-old guy who did not pursue a single selfish goal. The virus didn't do anything bad, it only displayed images that the computer was infected with the ELK CLONER virus.

The first viruses for IBM PC-compatible computers, that is, those that we use in everyday life, were created in 1987 in Pakistan by two brothers of programmers who even indicated their names, address and phone number in the virus code. They did this simply to measure how often their program would be copied from one computer to another. It is important to note that at that time it was an absolutely innocent type of activity.

Further, the idea of ​​​​creating computer viruses was already more actively seized on by young people, these teenagers are commonly called cyberpunks. They gradually became uninterested in writing simple viruses, they wanted to prove themselves, to become famous. Thus, the first destructive computer viruses appeared, the main purpose of which was the complete destruction of information on the computer. It was this type of virus that frightened the world community very much and actually prompted the creation of the anti-virus industry as such.

In 1987, the first serious epidemics began. For example, the Jerusalem virus was named after the city where it was invented. This virus every Friday the 13th deleted all files that could be run on users' computers, and since there was no Internet then, there was no way to download new files. The epidemic was so severe that it was forbidden in most companies to turn on computers on Friday the 13th.

Then viruses gradually developed, viruses appeared for almost all existing operating systems. There are viruses for Windows, MacOS, Linux, Unix, Android, Symbian, iOS and others. Virtually all types of operating systems that allow you to install additional software, there are viruses. The first polymorphic viruses appeared, that is, viruses that can change their code after infecting a new file, encryption viruses. With the advent of networks, new types of malware appeared: network worms, Trojans, downloaders, rootkits, but we will talk about them later.

With the advent of the operating Windows systems 95, the developers of this OS stated that it is generally impossible to create viruses for it and it will be as secure as possible. But a month later, Microsoft management was shown that they were in a hurry with such a loud statement.

I would like to recall some of the largest high-profile cases of infection in world history

⇒ In 1995, the epidemic of the Chernobyl virus began, its other name is WinChih. Why Chernobyl and why is it so memorable to us? This virus was dangerous in that every year on April 26, it destroyed the BIOS (primary operating system) data on every computer, and actually disabled it. It seemed that a virus had been created that could physically break a computer. But still, the computer did not physically break down, but the BIOS recovery procedure at that time was quite expensive, and sometimes it was much easier to buy a new one motherboard than to restore the old one.

An interesting fact is that the author of the virus was found. It turned out to be a resident of South Korea, he even confessed to his deed, but since South Korea at that time there was no relevant legislation and those affected by the virus in Korea itself, the author of the virus did not suffer any punishment.

⇒ Already in the late 90s, American companies actively used e-mail as the main method of document management. In 1999, an epidemic of the Melisa network worm was spread, which spread by e-mail, infecting computers, while by itself it did not start and did not harm the computer. He himself was forwarded to all addresses from the contact book. In practice, users received a letter from their acquaintance with the message: “Oh, look at what an interesting file I have.” If the file was launched, the virus itself was activated and sent further similar messages. That is, in fact, the first viruses were launched by the users themselves. Despite the fact that it was the worm that did not perform any malicious functions directly on computers, the mass distribution of mailings created a very serious burden on corporate mail servers. And as a result, a number of companies were simply paralyzed, as the document flow was blocked.

⇒ New operating systems came out, and the creation of viruses for them was and is a rather serious challenge for attackers. There was also an opinion that there were no viruses for Unix and Linux operating systems, but quite a lot of viruses were also written for them. In 2000, an epidemic of the RedLove virus for the operating room began. Linux systems. The most important thing here was that the virus used a vulnerability in the operating system itself to infect and could freely spread between computers on the network, and since Linux users did not use antiviruses, it took about a year to fight the epidemic and hundreds of thousands of computers were infected.

There have been many myths about computer viruses at various times. Back when monitors were cathode ray tubes, there was a myth that there was a virus that could converge the rays in the center of the screen, burn the screen and kill the person sitting in front of the monitor. There was also a myth that there were viruses that could destroy hard drives computer and so on. As a rule, all hoaxes arise around the ability of a computer to influence the environment. There was even an opinion that there are viruses that can show on the screen such a color scheme that can kill the user or at least drive him crazy. In fact, this is all a hoax. Viruses do not have any such capabilities.

Another hoax that is attributed to viruses is the ability to multiply in fantastic conditions, almost putting an infected flash drive near the computer. But we must understand that a virus is a program and it obeys all the rules that are inherent in computer programs.

In the real world, it is quite difficult for a user to figure out where a virus can be and where not. For example, even 10 years ago, the prevailing opinion was that there could be no viruses in image files. And if you were sent an image, you open it, then you cannot get infected. But a few years later, a vulnerability was found in a number of graphic file formats, which allowed some viewers to launch the so-called virus shellcode when opening the picture, which activated the Trojan program installed on the computer. Now, having opened a certain document format, it is impossible to become infected with a virus, but this does not mean that this cannot become possible in a week. And if you're a non-professional who's following latest updates in the field of virus programs, it is better to leave out that any link that you can open from a computer or mobile application theoretically can lead to infection.

It is officially believed that the term "computer virus" was first used by an employee of Lehigh University (USA) F. Cohen in his work "Experiments with computer viruses" in 1984. It should be noted that even before this report, there were examples of self-reproducing mechanisms.

The foundations of the theory of self-reproducing mechanisms were laid by John von Neumann, an American of Hungarian origin already known to us, in 1951. The very first publication devoted to the creation of self-reproducing systems is an article by L. S. Penrose on self-reproducing mechanical structures.

The article was published in 1957 by the American journal Nature. (Her husband is the Nobel laureate in physics R. Penrose, who wrote the famous book "Shadow of Mind", in which the author reveals the foundations of consciousness and the unconscious from the standpoint of the physics of the microworld). Based on the materials of this article, F. J. Stahl programmed a bio-cybernetic model in which creatures moved, multiplied and could mutate.

In 1961, V. A. Vysotsky, H. D. McIlroy and Robert Morris from Bell Telephone Laboratories (USA) invented the unusual game "Darwin", in which several assembler programs, called "organisms", were loaded into computer memory. Organisms created by one player, that is, belonging to one species, had to destroy representatives of another species and capture living space.

Animal, Creeper, Cookie Monster, and Xerox worm are often cited as examples of self-replicating programs. deeper was not a virus, but a self-propelled program. When running on remote computer new copy of deeper, the previous copy stopped working.

Deeper is believed to have displayed the message "I'm the creeper... catch me if you can".

Later R. Tomlinson wrote protective program Reaper - "Reaper", which, like "Bindweed", moved through the network and, if an "infection" was detected, stopped its activities.

The above examples are not computer viruses in their refined form.

With the advent of the first personal Apple computers in 1977, and the development of the network infrastructure, the first vandal programs appeared, which, under the guise of useful programs, were laid out on BBS, but after launch they destroyed user data. BBS - Bulletin Board System - an electronic bulletin board - was widely distributed via dial-up telephone networks(cable computer networks were still rare). Working with BBS is done using a terminal program in text mode.

At the same time, vandal Trojans appear, showing their destructive nature only after a while or under certain conditions.

The first known viruses are Virus 1,2,3 and Elk Cloner for Apple II PCs. Both viruses are very similar in functionality and appeared independently of each other, with a short time interval in 1981.

The Elk Cloner would announce its presence with a message containing even a small poem:

THE PROGRAM WITH A PERSONALITY IT WILL GET ON ALL YOUR DISKS IT WILL INFILTRATE YOUR CHIPS YES, IT'S CLONER IT WILL STICK TO YOU LIKE GLUE IT WILL MODIFY RAM, TOO SEND IN THE CLONER!

Dr.Web - one of the first antiviruses in history

Dr.Web would hardly have been created if the first viruses had not appeared before, which, in turn, would not have appeared if there were no environment for them to exist - that is, computers and computer networks.

On the occasion of the birthday of Dr.Web anti-virus, which we celebrate in April, we invite you to small digression into history and recall the viral and anti-virus "pioneers" who left a bright mark on the fleeting and eventful computerization of our society. They were the first - in a variety of guises, with a variety of intentions, and often far ahead of their time!

Ideas were in the air...

The idea of ​​self-reproducing programs was presented by the "father" of the computer, John von Neumann. Materials of lectures on this topic, which he read since 1949, Neumann summarized in the scientific work "The Theory of Self-Reproducing Automatic Devices" more than 60 years ago - in 1951 year.

The emergence of the term "virus" in relation to computer program was inevitable. Who used it first is hard to say. It is believed that it was first used in the fantastic story of the writer and scientist Gregory Benford "The Scarred Man", published in 1970 year. By the way, the same story also mentions the program to combat the virus - "Vaccine"!

First viruses

V 1961 In the same year, the game Darwin was created, in which several programs called "organisms" were loaded into the computer's memory. Organisms of one species, created by one player, had to destroy representatives of another species and capture living space.

V 1971 The first program that can be considered a virus in the modern sense appeared - The Creeper. She did no harm, but only displayed a message on the screen:

I`M THE CREEPER: CATCH ME IF YOU CAN

But she already knew how to independently spread over the network, becoming the first network virus in history.

She also gave birth to the first antivirus - the Reaper program, which is essentially the same network virus. Reaper spread across the networks without showing itself in any way, and if she managed to find The Creeper on the computer, she erased it.

Viruses are spreading

And this is serious

The first known real viruses are Virus 1,2,3 and Elk Cloner for the Apple II PC - that very future "poppy" for which there are supposedly no viruses. Both viruses appeared in 1981 year.

First epidemic

By the mid-1980s, IBM PC computers were widely used, which became one of the causes of virus epidemics.

The first epidemic of computer viruses can be considered to have occurred in 1987 In 2009, an epidemic of the rather harmless Brain virus, which in the course of its existence hit many computers around the world in a year of its existence, although it was originally created to determine the level of software piracy in Pakistan.

Research begins

In the thesis on the topic "Self-replicating programs", prepared by a student at the University of Dortmund Jurgen Kraus in 1980 year, along with theoretical calculations, the self-reproducing programs for the Siemens computer that actually existed at that time were also listed. It was in this work that a parallel was first drawn between a living cell and a self-reproducing computer program.

A clear definition of the term "computer virus" was given in 1983 Fred Cohen, then a graduate student at the University of Southern California:

“We define a computer virus as a program that can “infect” another by injecting a copy of itself into it. An infection can spread through a computer or a network ... Each infected program can behave like a virus, thanks to which the infection spreads.

Fred Cohen, "Computer Viruses, Theory and Experiments"

Shortly before Dr.Web

V 1988 the first version of the domestic antivirus Aidstest was developed. The author of this legendary program is D.N. Lozinsky. It has been used in almost all personal computers in the USSR, and then in the CIS countries, remaining out of competition for many years. Lozinsky's development helped many users, in particular in the public and commercial sectors, to cope with the virus problem at the initial stage of its appearance. Today D.N. Lozinsky is deputy CEO"Doctor Web".

Dmitry Nikolayevich Lozinsky is one of those who determined the development of domestic programming and stood at the origins of the first Russian anti-virus solutions.

In the USSR, at the origins of computer virology (with 1989 year) stood N.N. Bezrukov. His seminar "System Programming" and the electronic bulletin "Softpanorama" were largely devoted to issues of computer virology. It featured the developers of the then domestic antiviruses, including D.N. Lozinsky.

Later N.N. Bezrukov wrote the fundamental work "Computer Virology", which was published in 1991 and had a great influence on Igor Danilov.

First version of Spider's Web

In 1992, the first version of the Spider's Web anti-virus system was developed, which included the resident watchman Spider and the doctor (scanner in modern terminology) Web.