Happy 20th Birthday, Computer Viruses

from the ominous-anniversaries dept

The BBC is reporting that this week is the 20th anniversary of the first computer virus being created. Apparently, others had discussed such a program, but no one had actually written a virus until 1983 by a PhD. student at USC. The virus was just a demonstration of how a virus might work on Vax systems. Apparently, folks who saw the student's presentation were so angered by it that they told him to stop running such tests. Of course, banning something often seems to make it more likely to spread - and (as you're probably aware), now we have viruses everywhere.
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