Viruses mark 20th anniversary

Today, more than ever, we must be aware of the trouble viruses has caused us as we get more active in the information superhighway. January 19, 2006 marked the twentieth year of existence of the PC virus. Dave Chappelle writes about this in an article published by mar.com:

Jan. 19, 2006 marked the twentieth year of existence of the PC virus.

The boot sector virus "Brain," which infected computers via floppy disk, was first detected back in January 1986. While Brain was relatively harmless compared to threats faced today, it signaled the beginning of the current virus situation.

Nowadays boot sector viruses may be as rare as floppy disks, but they held our attention from 1986 to 1995. Infection required actually putting a file on a hard disk, so floppy disks were the main sources of transmission, but file sharing via bulletin boards and electronic data transfer were also known. Viruses would only become well-known months or even years after release.

With the release of Windows 95 came the development of macro viruses, which exploited vulnerabilities in that operating system. From the moment when a virus was discovered to when it became a global problem required about one month.

As the popularity of e-mail increased, so did e-mail worms. In just one day, Loveletter, aka ILOVEYOU, spread havoc and alleged massive financial loss before it was brought under control.

In the 21st Century, the transmission time window shrank from one day to one hour, in what is known as a "zero-day threat." Network worms like Blaster and Sasser automatically propagated and indiscriminately infected every unprotected online computer in their paths.

"Blended threats" combined methods of attack; for example, displaying characteristics of both viruses and worms while also exploiting network and system vulnerabilities.

However, the most important change over the past two decades has not been in the types of viruses or amount of malware, but rather the motives of the virus writers.

"Certainly the most significant change in has been the evolution of virus writing hobbyists into criminally operated gangs bent on financial gain," said F-Secure's Chief Research Officer Mikko Hypponen. "And this trend is showing no signs of stopping."

At present there are an estimated 150,000 virus-like threats, and the number continues to increase.

"There already are indications that malware authors will target laptop WLANs as the next vector for automatic spreading worms," said Hypponen.

"Whatever the next step might be, it will be interesting to see what kind of viruses we will be talking about in another twenty years time -- computer viruses infecting houses, perhaps?"