The history of anti-virus programs began at the end of the 20th century with the appearance of the first computer threats. Since then, both viruses themselves and drugs for computers have evolved a lot. In this article, we will talk about how anti-virus programs have changed over the past decades.
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The origin of the idea of a machine virus
Computer viruses were first talked about in the late 1940s. For example, in his 1966 monograph The Theory of Self-Replicating Automata, mathematician John von Neumann discusses the possibility of creating computer code that could damage machines, making copies of themselves and infecting new devices like human viruses.
Catch me if you can!
The first primitive virus program was developed in 1971 by BBN employee Bob Thomas. It was named Creeper, and in fact its main mission was to answer a question asked by John von Neumann. The virus did nothing wrong except display a short message on the screen: “I'M THE CREEPER. CATCH ME IF YOU CAN!” (“I'M A CREEPER. CATCH ME IF YOU CAN!”)
The anti-virus program Reaper was later created for Creeper.
Harmful rabbit
In 1974, the real Rabbit virus (or Wabbit) appeared. Once on the computer, it instantly reproduced itself (like a real rabbit, hence the name). The activity of the virus greatly affected the device's performance.
Brain explosion
In 1986, two brothers from Pakistan who owned a computer store created the Brain virus to protect their software from illegal copying. Brain was a stealth virus that infected floppy disks by writing its name on them, but did not harm data.
First aid for computers
At the end of the 1980s, the first drugs against viruses appeared. AntiVir and Dr. Solomon's Anti-Virus Toolkit, developed in 1988, are considered the pioneers among antiviruses, as well as Symantec antivirus for Macintosh, created a year later. Early “rescue” programs worked on the principle of signature analysis, comparing files with known viruses.
Antiviruses are getting smarter
At the end of the 1990s, anti-virus technologies became more advanced. Thus, they started using heuristic analysis: studying the behavior of programs to determine whether they are viruses and blocking “suspects”.
In addition, antiviruses have begun to share information about new threats using cloud servers.
21st Century Cybersecurity
21st century antiviruses are irreplaceable agents guarding cybersecurity. To protect modern computers from the latest threats (spyware, ransomware, phishing attacks), developers continue to improve “rescue” programs. Thus, antiviruses use machine learning to identify new threats and integrate with other comprehensive security solutions.
The history of antiviruses is a constant confrontation between developers of threats and drugs for computers. Today, “drugs for cars” are an integral part of our digital lives. Antiviruses protect computers and smartphones from malware, helping to maintain security in the online world.
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