The Computer Virus Drama

Many people think that since the Internet has been in existence that the computer viruses were started. It turns out that the computer viruses have a history—the first virus took place during the 1980s.

The early computer virus was known as the “Elk Cloner,” which was created by Rich Skrenta, who was in the ninth grade at the time. This virus, like any computer virus, was very annoying but it was not nearly as malicious as the computer viruses in recent years. In matter of fact, it did not look anything like the modern viruses. However, it was still a pain-in-the-neck for the people who had to sort our all of this virus mess. As the number of people purchasing computers increased, so did the computer hacking problem.

During an interview, Skrenta stated that it was dumb, “ It was some dumb little practical joke.” “I guess if you had to pick between being known for this and not being known for anything, I'd rather be known for this.” “But it's an odd placeholder for all that I've done.”

Why would anyone want to known as a computer hacker? If I want to be known for anything, it would be something that does not cause the world a big headache! I would want to do something in which the world can benefit in a positive perspective.

His friends were very weary of him because of his hacker mannerisms. They did not want to exchange computer games and/or software with him. Skrenta had floppy disks that he changed to be given out to send very bothersome messages that appeared on-screen. By the way, piracy circles were very popular during the early 1980s.

Thanks to Mr. Skrenta's prank antics, this was only the beginning of the problem with computer viruses. The Internet brought us even more malicious viruses.

Does anyone remember Melissa, Love Bug, and So Big? Anyone who was connected to the Internet and using e-mail during these times is very familiar with these viruses.

Just to refresh the memory bank, Melissa was that e-mail virus which had many names such as “Mailissa,” “Simpsons,” “Kwyjibo,” or “Kwejeebo.” It also had various variants as in Melissa V and Melissa O, just to name a few. In addition to being very malicious to e-mails throughout the world, it also made its way to the word processors Microsoft Word 97 and 2000.

Who can forget the Love Bug, or I Love You, virus? No one can forget this one. This virus paralyzed the business and government computers on a global basis. It preyed on files with extensions such as .jpeg, .mp3, .mp2, .jpg, .js, .jse, .css, .wsh, .sct, and .hta. These files had overwritten itself, which changed the extensions to .vbs or .vbe. After changing the file extension, the files were re-stored from backups. They could not be used repeatedly or retrieved.

I remember getting so many e-mails in my inbox that it looked worse than a celebrity's e-mails from fans. But it came from the So Big worm, which was more prevalent in the “Sobig.F” variant. Fortunately, I deleted all of them.

It had subject lines such as Re: Approved, Re: Thank You, and Re: Your Application. Also in the body of the e-mail, it included the text, “See the attached file for details.” Sometimes it also said, “Please see the attached file for details.”

As for the pioneer of computer hacking, he is still working with computers. The difference is that he began Topix and has written many computer programs, but not for hacking purposes. To this day, Skrenta is recognized for wreaking havoc on the world by spreading the “Elk Cloner” virus.
I am surprised that the authorities did not catch him. Maybe it was more difficult to detect the problem during that time.


Source:
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,295813,00.html?sPage=fnc/scitech/cybersecurity
http://www.securityworld.com/ia-420-love-bug-virus.aspx
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melissa_(computer_worm)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sobig_(computer_worm)