Who created the first computer virus? Many believe that it was the work of a 15 year old ninth grade student called Rich Skrenka, as a prank on his mates. He wrote the Elk Cloner virus that infected Apple II machines back in 1982 but after researching up and down the net, I found that there were viruses long before his!
Websites that publish the history of computer viruses state that viruses were present back in the 1970s. One that sprang up was called the Creeper virus which was first detected on ARPAnet, a U.S. military computer network. According to www.viruslist.com, the creeper virus was capable of gaining access through a modem onto a remote system. Once the system was infected, it would display a message that said “I’M THE CREEPER: CATCH ME IF YOU CAN”
To disable the creeper virus, a new one called The Reaper was created. This virus would spread to networked machines and delete the Creeper virus.
And so the story goes on.
There are interesting links here and here on the History of Viruses showing some of the nastiest to emerge.
Alan Wade 2008
