Computer Viruses Are 25 Years Old

The first computer virus wasn't much of a threat. Created by a mischievous Pittsburgh high school student, Elk Cloner annoyed unwitting Apple II users with a brief poem extolling its power to proliferate:

It will get on all your disks
It will infiltrate your chips
Yes it's Cloner! …

The year was 1982. The IBM personal computer had only been born the year before (its first virus would not crop up until 1986), the worlds of science and business had yet to adopt computer technology on a wide scale and computer users were primarily a gaggle of tech-savvy hobbyists who swapped files by floppy disk.

In the 25 years since the irksome but relatively benign Cloner, the growing World Wide Web of computer networks and high-speed Internet connections has left just about everyone with a PC or laptop vulnerable to malware (malicious software). In the process, malware has evolved from a minor irritant into big business.