Encyclopedia > Timeline of notable computer viruses and worms
This is a list of noteworthy computer viruses and worms. A computer virus is a computer program that can copy itself and infect a computer without permission or knowledge of the user. ...
This is about the computer worm. ...
1970-1979
Early 1970s - Creeper virus was detected on ARPANET infecting the Tenex operating system. Creeper gained access independently through a modem and copied itself to the remote system where the message, 'I'M THE CREEPER : CATCH ME IF YOU CAN.' was displayed. The Reaper program, itself a virus, was created to delete Creeper, the creators of both programs are unknown.
ARPANET logical map, March 1977. ...
The TOPS-20 operating system by DEC was the second proprietary OS for the PDP-10. ...
1974
1975 - Pervading Animal, a game written for the UNIVAC 1108, appeared. It remains a matter of debate whether Pervading Animal represented the first Trojan or an innocent game with unintended bugs.
The UNIVAC 1108 was the second member of Sperry Rands UNIVAC 1100 series of computers, introduced in 1964. ...
1980-1989
1980
1982 - A program called Elk Cloner, written for Apple II systems and created by Richard Skrenta. Apple II was seen as particularly vulnerable due to the storage of its operating system on Floppy disk. Elk Cloner's design combined with public ignorance about what malware was and how to protect against it led to Elk Cloner being responsible for the first large-scale computer virus outbreak in history.
Elk Cloner is the first known computer virus that has spread in the wild, i. ...
The 1977 Apple II, complete with integrated keyboard, color graphics, sound, a plastic case and eight expansion slots. ...
Rich Skrenta is a computer programmer. ...
A floppy disk is a data storage device that is composed of a disk of thin, flexible (floppy) magnetic storage medium encased in a square or rectangular plastic shell. ...
It has been suggested that Grayware be merged into this article or section. ...
1983 - The term 'virus' is coined by Frederick Cohen in describing self-replicating computer programs. In 1984 Cohen uses the phrase "computer virus" – as suggested by his teacher Leonard Adleman – to describe the operation of such programs in terms of "infection". He defines a 'virus' as "a program that can 'infect' other programs by modifying them to include a possibly evolved copy of itself."
- November 10th, 1983, at Lehigh University, Cohen demonstrates a virus-like program on a VAX11/750 system. The program was able to install itself to, or infect, other system objects.
Lehigh University is a private, co-educational university located in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, in the Lehigh Valley region of the United States. ...
VAX is a 32-bit computing architecture that supports an orthogonal instruction set (machine language) and virtual addressing (i. ...
1986 - January: The Brain boot sector virus (aka Pakistani flu) is released to the wild. Brain is considered the first IBM PC compatible virus, and the program responsible for the first IBM PC compatible virus epidemic. The virus is also known as Lahore, Pakistani, Pakistani Brain, as it was created in Lahore, Pakistan by 19 year old Pakistani programmer, Basit Farooq Alvi and his brother Amjad Farooq Alvi.
- December 1986: Ralf Burger presented the Virdem model of programs at a meeting of the underground Chaos Computer Club in Germany. The Virdem model represented the first programs that could replicate themselves via addition of their code to executable DOS files in COM format.
(c)Brain (the industry standard name being Brain) is a 1986 computer virus that infects DOS File Allocation Table file systems. ...
A boot sector is a sector of a hard disc, floppy disc, or similar data storage device that contains code for bootstrapping programs (usually, but not necessarily, operating systems) stored in other parts of the disc. ...
(c)Brain (the industry standard name being Brain) is a 1987 computer virus that infects DOS FAT file systems. ...
This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ...
Basit Farooq Alvi along with his brother Amjad Farooq Alvi, lived in Chahmiran, Lahore, Pakistan, developed the pc virus, (c)Brain, also known as the Pakistani flu. ...
Amjad Farooq Alvi along with his brother Basit Farooq Alvi, lived in Lahore, Pakistan, developed the pc virus, (c)Brain, also known as the Pakistani flu. ...
The Chaos Computer Club (CCC) is one of the biggest and most influental hacker organisations. ...
1987 - Appearance of the Vienna virus, which was subsequently neutralized- the first time this had happened on the IBM platform.[1]
- Appearance of Lehigh virus, boot sector viruses such as Yale from USA, Stoned from New Zealand, Ping Pong from Italy, and appearance of first self-encrypting file virus, Cascade. Lehigh was never released to the wild however. A subsequent infection of Cascade in the offices of IBM Belgium led to IBM responding with its own antivirus product development. Prior to this, antivirus solutions developed at IBM were intended for staff use only.
- October: The Jerusalem virus, part of the (at that time unknown) Suriv family, is detected in the city of Jerusalem. Jerusalem destroys all executable files on infected machines upon every occurrence of Friday the 13th (except Friday the 13th Nov 1987 making its first trigger date May 13th 1988). Jerusalem caused a worldwide epidemic in 1988.
- November: The SCA virus, a boot sector virus for Amigas appears, immediately creating a pandemic virus-writer storm. A short time later, SCA releases another, considerably more destructive virus, the Byte Bandit.
Jerusalem is a DOS file virus first detected in Jerusalem, Israel, in October 1987. ...
For other uses, see Jerusalem (disambiguation). ...
The SCA virus was the first computer virus created for the Commodore Amiga. ...
The original Amiga 1000 (1985) with various peripherals The Amiga 500 (1987) was the most popular variant of the Amiga. ...
For more information visit http://agn-www. ...
1988 Festering Hate and CyberAIDS are the names of the first two Apple, ProDOS viruses. ...
The Apple II was one of the most popular personal computers of the 1980s. ...
For Australian-based Objectivist Prodos Marinakis and the prodos institute, see here. ...
is the 306th day of the year (307th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...
The Morris worm or Internet worm was one of the first computer worms distributed via the Internet; it is considered the first worm and was certainly the first to gain significant mainstream media attention. ...
Robert Tappan Morris (born 1965) is an associate professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. ...
The DEC logo Digital Equipment Corporation was a pioneering American company in the computer industry. ...
VAX is a 32-bit computing architecture that supports an orthogonal instruction set (machine language) and virtual addressing (i. ...
Sun Microsystems, Inc. ...
BSD redirects here; for other uses see BSD (disambiguation). ...
In computer programming, a buffer overflow is an anomalous condition where a program somehow writes data beyond the allocated end of a buffer in memory. ...
1989 1989 is a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ...
Ghostball was the first multipartite virus discovered. ...
A computer virus that contain multiple parts. ...
FRISK Software Internationals company logo FRISK Software International (FSI), is an Icelandic software company that develops F-Prot antivirus and F-Prot AVES antivirus and antispam service[1]. Its name is derived from the initial letters of the personal name and patronymic of Friðrik Skúlason, its founder. ...
1990-1999
1990 - Mark Washburn working on an analysis of the Vienna and Cascade viruses with Ralf Burger develops the first family of polymorphic virus: the Chameleon family. Chameleon series debuted with the release of 1260.
In computer terminology, polymorphic code is code that mutates while keeping the original algorithm intact. ...
1260 was a computer virus written in 1990 that used a form of polymorphic encription, allowing it to periodically modify its signature in preset ways, while still keeping the same algorithim. ...
1992 - Michelangelo was expected to create a digital apocalypse on March 6th, with millions of computers having their information wiped according to mass media hysteria surrounding the virus. Later assessments of the damage showed the aftermath to be minimal.
The Michelangelo virus is a computer virus first discovered in April 1991 in New Zealand. ...
is the 65th day of the year (66th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...
1995 - The "Concept virus" the first Macro virus is created
1996 - "Ply" - DOS 16-bit based complicated polymorphic virus appeared with built-in permutation engine.
1998 is the 153rd day of the year (154th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...
CIH, also known as Chernobyl or Spacefiller, is a computer virus written by Chen Ing Hau of Taiwan. ...
1999 March 26 is the 85th day of the year (86th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...
The Melissa worm, also known as Mailissa, Simpsons, Kwyjibo, or Kwejeebo, is a computer worm that also functions as a macro virus, hence making it a multipartite virus. // History First found on March 26, 1999, Melissa shut down Internet mail systems that got clogged with infected e-mails propogating from...
Microsoft Word is a word processing application from Microsoft. ...
Microsoft Office Outlook is a personal information manager from Microsoft, and is part of the Microsoft Office suite. ...
is the 157th day of the year (158th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...
ExploreZip, also known as I-Worm. ...
Microsoft Office is an office suite from Microsoft, which is available on the Microsoft Windows and Apple Mac OS X operating systems. ...
For the personal information manager included in the Microsoft Office suite, see Microsoft Outlook. ...
Windows Internet Explorer (formerly Microsoft Internet Explorer, abbreviated MSIE), commonly abbreviated to IE, is a series of proprietary graphical web browsers developed by Microsoft and included as part of the Microsoft Windows line of operating systems starting in 1995. ...
Windows 95 is a consumer-oriented graphical user interface-based operating system. ...
Windows 98 (codenamed Memphis and formerly known as Windows 97[2]) is a graphical operating system released on June 25, 1998 by Microsoft and the successor to Windows 95. ...
2000 and later
2000 - May: The VBS/Loveletter ('ILOVEYOU') worm appeared. As of 2004 this is the most costly virus to business, causing upwards of 10 billion dollars in damage. The backdoor trojan to the worm, Barok, was created by Filipino programmer Onel de Guzman; it is not known who created the attack vector or who (inadvertently) unleashed it; de Guzman himself denies being behind the outbreak although he suggests he may have been duped by someone using his own Barok code as a payload.
- Zmist - Z0mbie's fully metamorphic, code integrating virus.
The VBS/Loveletter computer worm, also known as Iloveyou or Lovebug, is a computer worm written in VBScript. ...
2004 is a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ...
ZMist (also known as Zombie. ...
2001 The Morris worm or Internet worm was one of the first computer worms distributed via the Internet; it is considered the first worm and was certainly the first to gain significant mainstream media attention. ...
Red Hat Linux was a popular Linux distribution assembled by Red Hat until the early 2000s, when it was discontinued. ...
WU-FTPD (more fully wuarchive-ftpd, also frequently spelled in lowercase as wu-ftpd) is a FTP server software (daemon) for Unix-like operating systems. ...
The Line Printer Daemon protocol/Line Printer Remote protocol (or LPD, LPR) also known as the Berkeley printing system, is a set of programs that provide printer spooling and network print server functionality for Unix-like systems. ...
Win32/Simile (also known as Etap) is a metamorphic computer virus written in assembly language for Microsoft Windows. ...
See the terminology section, below, regarding inconsistent use of the terms assembly and assembler. ...
is the 128th day of the year (129th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...
The Sadmind worm was a self-popogating piece of malware which exploited vulnerabilities in both Sun Microsystems Solaris (Security Bulletin 00191)and Microsofts Internet Information Services (MS00-078), for which a patch had been made avilable seven months earlier. ...
Sun Microsystems, Inc. ...
Solaris is a computer operating system developed by Sun Microsystems. ...
Microsoft Corporation, (NASDAQ: MSFT, HKSE: 4338) is a multinational computer technology corporation with global annual revenue of US$44. ...
Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS; formerly called Server) is a set of Internet-based services for servers using Microsoft Windows. ...
Sircam is a computer worm that propagates by email from Microsoft Windows systems. ...
A network share is a location on a computer network, typically allowing multiple computer users on the same network to have a centralized space on which to store files (i. ...
is the 194th day of the year (195th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...
The Code Red worm was a computer worm released via the Internet on July 13, 2001 affecting computers running Microsofts Internet Information Server (IIS) web server. ...
Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS; formerly called Server) is a set of Internet-based services for servers using Microsoft Windows. ...
is the 216th day of the year (217th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...
The Code Red worm was a computer worm released via the Internet on July 13, 2001 affecting computers running Microsofts Internet Information Server (IIS) web server. ...
Code Red II is a computer worm similar to the Code Red worm. ...
is the 261st day of the year (262nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...
Nimda, a worm that exists in memory-only or on the network, wreaks havoc on the Internet in september 2001. ...
Code Red II is a computer worm similar to the Code Red worm. ...
The Sadmind worm was a self-popogating piece of malware which exploited vulnerabilities in both Sun Microsystems Solaris (Security Bulletin 00191)and Microsofts Internet Information Services (MS00-078), for which a patch had been made avilable seven months earlier. ...
is the 299th day of the year (300th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...
Klez is a computer worm that propagates via E-mail. ...
2003 The simultaneous attack on network weakpoints by the Blaster and Sobig worms caused a massive amount of damage. is the 24th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ...
The SQL slammer worm is a computer worm that caused a denial of service on some Internet hosts and dramatically slowed down general Internet traffic, starting at 05:30 UTC on January 25, 2003. ...
The SQL slammer worm is a computer worm that caused a denial of service on some Internet hosts and dramatically slowed down general Internet traffic, starting at 05:30 UTC on January 25, 2003. ...
Microsoft SQL Server is a relational database management system (RDBMS) produced by Microsoft. ...
MSDE stands for Microsoft Data Engine, Microsoft Desktop Engine or Microsoft SQL Server Desktop Engine. ...
is the 224th day of the year (225th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...
The Blaster worm (a. ...
Windows redirects here. ...
is the 230th day of the year (231st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...
The Welchia worm, also known as the Nachia worm, is a computer worm that exploits a vulnerability in the Microsoft Remote procedure call (RPC) service similar to the Blaster worm. ...
is the 231st day of the year (232nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...
The Sobig Worm was a computer worm that infected millions of Internet-connected, Microsoft Windows computers in August 2003. ...
The Sobig Worm was a computer worm that infected millions of Internet-connected, Microsoft Windows computers in August 2003. ...
is the 297th day of the year (298th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...
The Sober worm is a family of computer worms that were discovered on October 24, 2003. ...
2004 - Late January: MyDoom emerges, and currently holds the record for the fastest-spreading mass mailer worm.
- March 19: The Witty worm is a record-breaking worm in many regards. It exploited holes in several Internet Security Systems (ISS) products. It was the fastest disclosure to worm, it was the first internet worm to carry a destructive payload and it spread rapidly using a pre-populated list of ground-zero hosts.
- May 1: The Sasser worm emerges by exploiting a vulnerability in LSASS described in MS04-011 and causes problems in networks, even interrupting business in some cases.
- December: Santy, the first known "webworm" is launched. It exploited a vulnerability in phpBB described in BID10701 and used Google in order to find new targets. It infected around 40000 sites before Google filtered the search query used by the worm, preventing it from spreading.
Mydoom, also known as Novarg, Mimail. ...
is the 78th day of the year (79th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...
The Witty worm is a computer worm that attacks ISS firewall and other computer security products. ...
Internet Security Systems NASDAQ: ISSX is a security software provider which was founded in 1994. ...
is the 121st day of the year (122nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...
The Sasser worm is a computer worm that affects computers running vulnerable versions of the Microsoft operating systems Windows XP and Windows 2000. ...
Local Security Authority Subsystem Service (LSASS), is a process in Microsoft Windows operating systems that is responsible for enforcing the security policy on the system. ...
Santy is a computer worm created in Perl to exploit a vulnerability in phpBB software which used Google to spread across the internet. ...
phpBB is a popular internet forum package written in the PHP programming language. ...
This article is about the corporation. ...
This article is about the corporation. ...
2005 is the 228th day of the year (229th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...
Wikinews has news related to this article: CNN headquarters infected with computer worm, exaggerates global threat The Zotob worm and several variations of it, known as Rbot. ...
It has been suggested that Grayware be merged into this article or section. ...
is the 286th day of the year (287th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...
Samy[1] was a cross-site scripting computer worm[2] targeting the social-networking site MySpace. ...
A computer virus is a computer program that can copy itself and infect a computer without permission or knowledge of the user. ...
A computer virus is a computer program that can copy itself and infect a computer without permission or knowledge of the user. ...
2006 is a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ...
2006 - January 20: The Nyxem worm was discovered. It spread by mass-mailing. Its payload, which activates on the third of every month, starting on February 3, attempts to disable security-related and file sharing software, and destroy files of certain types, such as Microsoft Office files.
- February 16: discovery of the first-ever virus for Mac OS X, a low-threat worm known as OSX/Leap-A or OSX/Oompa-A, is announced.[1]
- Mid-June: Precursor to the "w0rm.EricAndrew" worm is released on the popular website MySpace. The worm is spread through visiting profiles and copying itself through a Quicktime security hole into the "Music" section on the victims profile. The worm, known as the "lOrdOfthenOOse" worm, changed display names to "lOrdOfthenOOse", and not allowing the name to be changed. The worm was defeated 2 ways. The primary way was through removing the code from the profile. The way it was eradicated, however, was through the removal of the link by the webmaster of the website the virus was uploaded to. Eradicated 4 days after release. No damage was caused, but it was estimated that 70% of all MySpace, or over 70 million profiles, were infected with the worm [citation needed]. A patch was released from Quicktime specifically for Myspace users to prevent a worm being spread in this manner again.
- June 28: Investigators stated that Essebar may have authored more than 20 other viruses including the Mydoom variant, Mydoom-BG, and the Zotob-related Mytob worm.[2]
January 20 is the 20th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ...
Nyxem is a mass-mailing worm that tries to spread using remote shares. ...
is the 34th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ...
Microsoft Office is an office suite from Microsoft, which is available on the Microsoft Windows and Apple Mac OS X operating systems. ...
February 16 is the 47th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ...
The Leap or Oompa-Loompa computer virus is an application-infecting, LAN-spreading virus for Mac OS X discovered in February 2006. ...
This article does not cite any references or sources. ...
MySpace is a social networking website offering an interactive, user-submitted network of friends, personal profiles, blogs, groups, photos, music, and videos. ...
MySpace is a social networking website offering an interactive, user-submitted network of friends, personal profiles, blogs, groups, photos, music, and videos. ...
is the 179th day of the year (180th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...
Farid Essebar (born in 1987, known as Diabl0) is a Moroccan Dark-side hacker. ...
Mydoom, also known as Novarg, Mimail. ...
Wikinews has news related to this article: CNN headquarters infected with computer worm, exaggerates global threat The Zotob worm and several variations of it, known as Rbot. ...
Wikinews has news related to: CNN headquarters infected with computer worm, exaggerates global threat The Zotob worm and several variations of it, known as Rbot. ...
2007 - January 7: A worm generated by hackers of the popular website MySpace was discovered by many users on the site. Some sites were unaffected while others showed display names of w0rm.EricAndrew. The hackers, Eric and Andrew changed wordings and added to others' sites.
- January 17 : Peacomm Trojan identified as a fast spreading email spamming threat thought to have originated from Russia, it disguises itself as a news email containing a film about bogus news stories asking you to download the attachment which it claims is a film. Around June 30th it has infected 1.7 million computers.
is the 7th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ...
MySpace is a social networking website offering an interactive, user-submitted network of friends, personal profiles, blogs, groups, photos, music, and videos. ...
is the 17th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ...
See also Antivirus software consists of computer programs that attempt to identify, thwart and eliminate computer viruses and other malicious software (malware). ...
To aid the fight against viruses and other malware many security advisory organizations and developers of anti-virus software compile and publish lists of viruses. ...
This is a list of trojan horses. ...
This article is being considered for deletion in accordance with Wikipedias deletion policy. ...
The Linux operating system, along with Unix and other Unix-like computer operating systems, are generally regarded as well protected against computer viruses. ...
A computer virus hoax is a false email message warning the recipiant of a virus that is going around. ...
References - ^ Kaspersky Lab viruslist
- ^ (pcwelt.de) - "Zotob author may be virus mastermind"
External links |
Feeds |
Contact