History of malware

[hackerman1]

Hi !

History of malware

“1. Introduction

Malware, short for malicious (or malevolent) software, is software used or created by attackers to disrupt computer operation, gather sensitive information, or gain access to private computer systems. It can appear in the form of code, scripts, active content, and other software. ‘Malware’ is a general term used to refer to a variety of forms of hostile or intrusive software. Malware includes computer viruses, ransomware, worms, trojan horses, rootkits, keyloggers, dialers, spyware, adware, malicious BHOs and other malicious programs; the majority of active malware threats are usually worms or trojans rather than viruses [1].

History of malware can be split to several categories that will also represent timeframe in which events from that category happened. So we will split history of malware in 5 categories. First category is early phase of malware. This is time when first malwares come to life. Second phase is early Windows phase. It will describe first Windows malwares, first mail worms and macro worms. Third part is evolution of network worms. These threats become popular when internet becomes wide spread. Forth part is rootkits and ransomwares. These were the most dangerous malware before 2010. Then came malware that was made for virtual espionage and sabotage. This malwares were created by secret services of some countries. This is the last phase of malware evolution that we are now facing.

2. Beginnings of malware

There were some malware for other platforms before 1986., but in 1986. appeared first malware for PC. It was virus called Brain.A. Brain.A was developed in Pakistan, by two brothers – Basit and Amjad. They wanted to prove that PC is not secure platform, so they created virus that was replicating using floppy disks. It infected booting sector of floppy drive and booting sector of every inserted floppy disk. So anytime infected floppy would be inserted into PC, it would infect it’s drive, so the drive would infected again every disk inserted. This virus did no harm, and authors were signed in code, with phone numbers and address [2]. Intention of early malware writers was to point on problems, rather than make some harm or damage. But later of course malware become more and more destructive.
“

http://inspiratron.org/HistoryOfMalware.php

There is a list of “famous” malware in the article…..

[Author]

Posts