Old Computer Viruses

[Nippo]

I was tasked to write a research paper for my cybersecurity class, so I decided to make my topic about legacy computer viruses.

I was wondering if you guys had any recommendations for cool and/or funny legacy viruses that I could write about. Preferably looking for viruses around Windows 3.1 - XP but send whatever you'd like because I would be interested regardless. Current examples I have are worms like LoveLetter, and Microsoft Word script viruses are also pretty goofy.

I think it is common sense to not share any virus files. Just the names of them or to useful wiki articles that go into detail! I think it is important to document older viruses and how they had an impact on the industry during that time period, as well as how it has led to modern computer security.

[Sinclair-Speccy]

Is it strictly Windows 3.1 to XP as you have Elk Cloner for the Apple II and several other viruses for other platforms that are old

[teatime]

this is definitely not my field of expertise but the you are an idiot virus was always a little spooky to me... also has a very strong aesthetic  :TnT: https://yewtu.be/watch?v=ZcwxToKjJhE

[TheFrugalGamer]

This sounds like an awesome topic for a research paper-I would love researching this!

The two that pop into my mind are Stuxnet, which isn't so much "fun" as it is an example of just how destructive viruses can be when they're in the hands of state actors. It was an attempt by the US government to disrupt the nuclear program in Iran, although nobody's ever admitted to anything still. Scary stuff!

The other one I'm reminded of is Bonzai Buddy, which a lot of people probably didn't know was spying on them and harvesting their data. It was a desktop assistant that collected data without consent for advertising purposes, would mess with your browser settings, and was apparently very difficult to get rid of. Much sillier than Stuxnet, but still pretty bad.

[Memory]

We could also talk about those surprise viruses we received when downloading junk from p2p programs such as LimeWire and Ares? Those were very annoying times for people who didn't even know what they were downloading, including me in the past .
I remember that one """"technique"""" I used to know if some programs were viruses was to just check the metadata and the size of the file.

[Nippo]

Is it strictly Windows 3.1 to XP as you have Elk Cloner for the Apple II and several other viruses for other platforms that are old

Feel free to share viruses from any operating system! I just chose older Windows specifically as I have more familiarity with it.

[SilkSkull]

Brain is a cool old one!

[kurohaato]

You could honestly write 50 essays on this topic and still have more to talk about.   Here's some ones I find interesting:

• Creeper, the first computer worm.
• Morris Worm, the first virus that led to a felony conviction in the US.
• Staog, the first virus for linux systems.

[Sinclair-Speccy]

You could honestly write 50 essays on this topic and still have more to talk about.   Here's some ones I find interesting:

• Creeper, the first computer worm.
• Morris Worm, the first virus that led to a felony conviction in the US.
• Staog, the first virus for linux systems.

Creeper is a pog virus, but would you really call it a worm if it was an experiment?

[brisray]

This predates even Windows 3.1, the first computer virus I ever got was Ambulance - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ambulance_(computer_virus)

Some of the computer magazine cover disks were infected, especially around 1998 when the Marburg Virus was distributed by 3 different magazines - http://virus.wikidot.com/marburg

Not really virues but it gave some people a scare when the cover disks started giving away software utilities that could do weird things to unsuspecting users' computers. One I think was called "Wash" and that popped up a message saying "cleaning your hard drive..." then played an audio file that sounded like a washing machine and sounded like your hard drive was spinning about a million rpm.

Then there was Drop or Cascade that dropped the letters on your screen to a heap at the bottom - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z7g-v3d7-Gk

Another was Taxi, which sounded like some unintelligible walkie-talkie communication.

Up until Stuxnet I only heard of one computer virus that could actually damage computer hardware. Using Assembly (ASM) you can control where the heads are on a hard drive. It is theoretically possible to keep crashing the arm into the end stops until they either bend, get stuck, or simply stop working.

[kurohaato]

Creeper is a pog virus, but would you really call it a worm if it was an experiment?

Experiment or not, it's a worm by definition. It self-replicates to spread itself to other computers. The question is if it should be considered malware since it caused no damage to the system. It's a very unique case of a self-replicating program that wasn't malicious by design. Quite the essay topic if you ask me.