Over the past decades, the computer viruses have evolved through numerous avatars. From being rather 'dumb', they have developed into programs exhibiting surprising 'smart¬ness'. We give you an overview of how viruses have developed over time.
1950'S-1970:THE PRE-HISTORIC PERIOD
The viruses, as we know them now, actually started out in unpretentious surroundings of research laboratories. In the 1950's, researchers studied, what they called as-'Self-altering Automata' programs. Simple program codes were writ-ten to demonstrate rather limited characteristics. In a way, these programs were the pre-historic (in a manner of speaking) ancestors of the modern virus.
In the 1960's computer scientists at the Bell Laboratories had viruses battling each other in a game called Core Wars. The object of the game was to create a virus small enough to destroy opposing viruses without being caught. Like computers, viruses too were studied keeping in mind their military implications. Of course, several research foundations too worked on the non-military uses of viruses.
1970'S-1980:THE EARLY TIMES
This was the time when the term 'VIRUS' gained recognition by moving from the research labs to the living rooms of common users. Science fiction novels in the early 1970's were replete with several instances of viruses and their resultant effects. In fact, an entire episode of the famous science fiction TV series, Star Trek, was devoted to viruses. Around the same time, researchers at the Xerox Corp. demonstrated a self-replicating code they had developed.
By now, the use of computers had proliferated to include most government and corporate users. These computers were beginning to be connected by networks. Several or-ganizations began working on developing useful viruses which could help in improving productivity.
1980'S-1990:THE MIDDLE AGES
While on the one hand, the exponentially increasing use of computers and their availability proved to be a boon to the common users, on the other hand, the ugly faces of compu¬ter viruses also made their appearances. From the compu¬ter-science labs, viruses fell into the hands of cyberpunks -unprincipled programmers; who obtained sadistic pleasures from ruining computer systems across the globe.
Among the earliest instances of malicious uses of viruses was when Gene Burelon a disgruntled employee of a US securities firm, introduced a virus in the company computer network and managed to destroy nearly 1, 68,000 records of the corporate database. In October 1987, the (c) Brain virus, later to be known as the 'Pakistani' virus, was found to be working its way quietly through the computer systems in¬stalled at the University of Delaware. This was probably the first mass distributed virus of its kind. In 1988, the so-called Internet Virus was responsible for the breakdown of nearly 6000 UNIX based computers connected to the Internet network in the US. Other well known viruses that made their appearances were Cascade, Jerusalem, Dark Avenger, etc. During this decade, viruses were written to attack different operating software platforms such as, DOS, MAC, UNIX, etc.
1990'S-2004:THE CURRENT PICTURE
The early part of the 1990's was witness to development of sophisticated strains of existing viruses. It was more of a matching of wits between the developers of viruses and the developers of anti-virus programs. In addition to plugging the loopholes in existing viruses, a new family of viruses called the Macro Viruses also made their appearance. These viruses affected files created in the popular MS Word and MS Excel programs.
The decade of the 1990's has seen more and more virus developers writing stealth virus codes giving rise to sophis¬ticated viruses such as the Zero Hunt virus, the Michael Angelo virus, etc. In addition, viruses written to invade net¬worked environments have also come into being, in line with the increasing use of communication networks. The Year 2000 problem, in all probability, will generate families of new viruses which will come in the guise of Y2K solution pro¬grams.
2005-2015: THE EMERGING SCENARIO
The first decade in the next millennium will see the generation of the 'intelligent viruses' displaying fuzzy logic characteristics. These viruses will be programmed to alter their codes as and when they detect the presence of anti-virus programs. They will not only attack the traditional computer systems and communication networks, but also, software controlled components in cars, trains, air-traffic control systems, defense equipment, etc. The virus developers in all likelihood will include more and more young adolescents and even, children." Viruses will become the new tools of terrorism; giving rise to 'Cyber Terrorists'.
Since Internet will connect the farthest corners of the globe, the time it takes for a virus to proliferate will be greatly reduced. However, on the flip side, special software development tools will be available to common users to automatically develop anti-virus programs to counter most virus threats.
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