The term “virus” in the computing world has been inaccurately applied to a number of malware programs. Even if people have equated every malicious software to a virus and have misappropriated the word in a variety of situations, it is still important to clarify and identify correct contexts where programs can be considered viruses.
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The system attacks of a computer virus may range from funny screen messages to acquisition of sensitive information. The main characteristic of a computer virus is its ability to reproduce and modify other software without the knowledge of the user. But unlike a worm, a virus needs the activation of the program or executable file to which it is attached.
There was already considerable academic and theoretical work on self-replicating computer programs, decades before the first viruses ravaged systems all over the world. The Hungarian-American mathematician John von Neumann had lectured and published works in the 1940s and 1950s on the design and processes of program multiplication.
Similar studies were produced within the academic circles of Europe and the US. Veith Risak and Jürgen Kraus wrote their own papers on the subject. The American computer scientist Fred Cohen did some of the most extensive research on the topic, finally coining and defining the computer virus and elaborating on its inherent characteristics of infection, modification, and reproduction.
People didn’t care much about these malicious programs in the 1980s, basically considering them largely theoretical and with little or no consequence to real world operations. The introduction of the first virus in the wild, Elk Cloner, gave a clearer picture of the capabilities of these programs.
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| Image source: pixabay.com |
Richard Blech is an entrepreneur, investor, and innovator. He is also the CEO of Secure Channels, a company conceiving solutions designed to be customizable to its clients’ environment without compromising the level of protection it provides and reducing maintenance costs. To read similar articles, visit this blog.
