Twenty-five years ago, the virus was born by Corina Ciubotaru

This year marks the anniversary of 25 years since the first virus was released onto the unsuspecting world. It was the brainchild of a 9th grader named Rich Skrenta, who liked to play pranks on his friends. So, when he got an Apple II computer as a gift, he started using technology to make fun of them. At first, he tampered with their floppy disks, getting them to show certain messages when they were inserted in the computer; later viruses created by Skrenta would render the game unplayable after a certain amount of time, which ultimately led to his friends not trusting him anymore and forbidding him from borrowing their disks. He created what is now known as a "boot sector" virus, which infects the computer and all the disks that are inserted into it afterwards. After his friends got sick of getting their games messed up, he went on to install his program on the school computers and from then on, the users took care of the rest. Since then, millions of viruses have infected countless computers and have evolved along with the world. Modern viruses are being transmitted through the internet, by e-mail and attachments, and are much more commercial in purpose. They cause huge losses to some companies and high gains for antivirus developers. Some allow the creator to gain control of the infected computer and use it as a cover for other malicious activities. The virus has come a long way and it looks like it's here to stay as long as people have personal computers and the need to do bad things to others.

related story: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070901/ap_on_hi_te/computer_virus_anniversary;_ylt=ApFgDmz1ZgKR3Ih78CSYPaqs0NUE

by Corina Ciubotaru for PocketNews (http://pocketnews.tv)

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