The phrase 'computer viruses' is one of the most well-known in the cybersecurity world. Many consumers are unaware of the fundamental characteristics of viruses, despite the presence of these dangers and their widespread impact. The history of computer viruses is briefly discussed below, along with predictions for this pervasive cyberthreat's future.

Self-Replicating Automata Theory

A virus on a computer is what? The mathematician John von Neumann first brought up this concept in a series of lectures in the late 1940s and a paper titled Theory of Self-Reproducing Automata that was released in 1966.

Essentially a thought experiment, the study posited that a 'mechanical' organism, such as a piece of computer code, might be able to harm machines, replicate, and infect new hosts.

The Creeper Initiative

In 1971, Bob Thomas of BBN developed the Creeper software, which is frequently referred to as the first virus, as stated by Discovery. In reality, Creeper was made as a security test to determine whether it was possible to create a self-replicating programme. It sort of was. Creeper would try to uninstall itself from the previous host with every new hard disc it infected. Creeper just conveyed a straightforward message and was not malicious: 'IT'S ME, THE CREEPER. SEE IF YOU CAN CATCH ME!'

Rabbit Virus

The Rabbit (or Wabbit) virus was created in 1974, according to InfoCarnivore, and it was capable of self-replication as well as having hostile intentions. Once on a computer, it duplicated itself numerous times, drastically decreasing system performance, and finally crashing the system. The virus's name derives from its rapid multiplication.

According to Fourmilab, computer programmer John Walker created the first Trojan in 1975, which was known as ANIMAL. However, it is debatable whether this was a Trojan or merely a virus at the time. Those were the days of 'animal programmes,' which employ a game of 20 questions to try to guess which animal the user is picturing.

Virus in the Brain Boot Sector

In 1986, the first PC virus, called Brain, started attacking 5.2' floppy discs. It was created by two brothers who run a computer store in Pakistan, Basit and Amjad Farooq Alvi, according to Securelist. They created Brain, a virus that replaced a floppy disk's boot sector, since they were fed up with customers pirating their software. Although the virus did not really destroy any data—it was the first stealth virus—it did contain a concealed copyright statement.

Valentine's Day virus

Malware transmission methods altered with the advent of dependable, quick broadband networks in the early twenty-first century. Malware could now spread swiftly over email and was no longer restricted to floppy discs or corporate networks.

The Virus Code Red

The Code Red worm was a 'file-less' worm, meaning it didn't try to infect any system files and just existed in memory. The fast-replicating worm caused havoc by altering the protocols that allow computers to connect and spread over the world in a matter of hours by taking advantage of a weakness in the Microsoft Internet Information Server. Eventually, as reported in Scientific American, a distributed denial of service attack on the Whitehouse.gov website was launched using compromised devices.

Heartbleed

Heartbleed, one of the most current and dangerous viruses, appeared in 2014 and threatened servers all across the Internet. Unlike viruses or worms, the cause of Heartbleed is a flaw in OpenSSL, a general-purpose, open-source cryptography library.

Viruses on computers in the future

Computer viruses have been a part of the collective human psyche for more than 60 years, but what was originally just cyber vandalism has fast evolved into cybercrime. Trojans, viruses, and worms are constantly evolving. Ingenious and driven, hackers are always prepared to test the limits of connection and programming to create new infection techniques. 

The latest Moker remote access Trojan may be a solid indicator of what's to come as more PoS (point of sale) intrusions appear to be in the future of cybercrime. This recently found malware is challenging to detect, challenging to remove, and it gets past every known security. The lifeblood of both attack and defense is changed, which means that nothing is certain.