Documentary Sheds Light On Origins Of First PC Virus

[vansau]

Documentary Sheds Light On Origins Of First PC Virus

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25 years after the first virus for MS-DOS appeared in the wild, a new mini-documentary on the Web explains how it spread across the planet and why it was created.

2011 is the 25th anniversary of the debut of "Brain", which is widely considered to be the first computer virus to appear on MS-DOS. While the virus didn't exactly destroy operating systems, it became infamous when it spread across the world via floppy disks and frightened a slew of computer owners. The identities of the men who created the virus has been public knowledge, but they've never spoken publicly about their creation ... until now, that is.

Mikko Hypponen, the Chief Research Officer for F-Secure, decided to track down the two men - brothers Amjad Farooq Alvi and Basit Farooq Alvi - based on the contact information that was actually provided in Brain's code. Along the way, Hypponen made a short documentary about his trip. As it turns out, the Alvi brothers still work out of the same address in Pakistan; they run a company called Brain Telecommunication Limited.

Hypponen's ten-minute documentary is actually rather fascinating (and lovely) to watch, especially when Hypponen speaks to the Alvis and they talk about the motives behind the virus's creation. The best moment, though, is when Hypponen brings the Brain virus "home" to the two men on one of its original floppy disks.

Source: Geeks Are Sexy

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[BENZOOKA]

Whee. Finland!

Actually, I've seen Mikko Hyppönen talking about this before, and viruses in a more general way, in a Finnish documentary (or a journalistic program).

Very interesting stuff anyways.

 

[ryai458]

Those people started a horrible thing.

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

Documentary Sheds Light On Origins Of First PC Virus

Thank you for bringing us this slice of history. Videos like this should be made compulsory watching on ANY IT course.

Edit: I'm sorry....Every so often I keep thinking he's gonna say "Shtop...this virus isn't finished yet!"

 

[josemlopes]

Those people started a horrible thing.

Well, not exactly, someone would make a virus eventually and when these guys found out that a PC is fragile companies of antivirus were created.

It would be worse if the first guys that created it had the intetion of harming the PC while there were no antivirus softwares.

 

[Korten12]

Those people started a horrible thing.

Well, not exactly, someone would make a virus eventually and when these guys found out that a PC is fragile companies of antivirus were created.

It would be worse if the first guys that created it had the intetion of harming the PC while there were no antivirus softwares.

true dat.

OT: Nice video, very interesting.

 

[Tdc2182]

Pony tails belong on Ponies.

OT: Was unaware you could have a virus that wasn't harmful

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

OT: Was unaware you could have a virus that wasn't harmful

Viruses are just self-replicating programs, essentially. Hence the name. The payload can be as destructive or as helpful as you wish.

 

[Formica Archonis]

Ah! Keep the floppy in the protective envelope! ARGH!

OT: Was unaware you could have a virus that wasn't harmful

Goodness yes. I used to pore over F-Prot's built in virus database back when it was a DOS app. It'd explain any interesting text found in the virus - and there was a LOT because most of these were made by bored kids - method of infection, etc. Saw some weird stuff there. Some of them were bad, but some were very polite as viruses go, never causing any major damage.

Some interesting ones:
http://www.f-secure.com/v-descs/brain.shtml
http://www.f-secure.com/v-descs/stoned.shtml
http://www.f-secure.com/v-descs/jerusale.shtml
http://www.f-secure.com/v-descs/virus_dos_cih.shtml
http://www.f-secure.com/v-descs/denzuk.shtml


Hehe, just found and reran that ancient virus scanner. Red background with white text. How imposing! Had to set my system clock back to 1998 to make F-Prot 2.28b work right! (If the definitions are too old, it refuses to run.)

 

[GeorgW]

Really cool documentary, I've always wondered how it started.

 

[Sabrestar]

Fascinating stuff. I remember reading about Brain when covering viruses in my Artificial Life class in college. Fun to hear the rest of the story.

Brain wasn't the first virus of all time; that was written as a doctoral project by Fred Cohen. But it was the first one written, as mentioned, on an MS-DOS platform. And yes, I do think it's quite certain that if they hadn't, someone else would. As often happens, it was a case of benign intent gone horribly wrong.

(Source: Artificial Life, by Steven Levy)