# History of computer virus **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [January 26, 2012, 8:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/history-of-computer-virus/610692 "2012-01-26T08:08:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![sbright33](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8e8cbc/32.png) [@sbright33](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sbright33)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2012, 8:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/history-of-computer-virus/610692/1 "2012-01-26T08:08:07Z")
I’d like to write a book about the first computer virus which my friend created before there was a word for it. Nobody else knows this story. We have the source code and many handwritten notes and emails about what happened before and after it was released. Wait, was it even called email back then on a BBS? Should it be accurate non-fiction, or exaggerated exciting fiction? The story is pretty interesting the way it actually happened. Is there a step I should take before finishing or polishing the writing? Who should I contact? There was an article in Time magazine. The 2 people involved in stopping it became famous in this field, maybe even still today. They could verify their role in the story. Other hacks were just as fun and adventurous during those years. I remember all the details. One interesting chapter is how it was developed simultaneously along with a professor’s thesis paper, without any knowledge in either direction. Both were at the same University with all the work being done across the street. We did not attend his class. There is much in common between the two. Nobody else wrote a similar paper that year. Everybody assumed in the newspaper that there was a connection of course. We did not find out about this until it was finished and released. > **[Synchronicity](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synchronicity)** > > Synchronicity (German: Synchronizität) is a concept first introduced by analytical psychologist Carl G. Jung "to describe circumstances that appear meaningfully related yet lack a causal connection." In contemporary research, synchronicity experiences refer to one's subjective experience that coincidences between events in one's mind and the outside world may be causally unrelated to each other yet have some other unknown connection. Jung held that this was a healthy, even necessary, functi Jun... Another interesting fact is that the date is wrong in all the recent books about it. Why? This makes it seem like it came out nearly a year later then it did. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2012, 8:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/history-of-computer-virus/610692/2 "2012-01-26T08:16:58Z")
Are you claiming your friend created the first computer virus? If so, he would be Bob Thomas who released the Creeper virus in 1971. ---
**Author:** ![sbright33](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8e8cbc/32.png) [@sbright33](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sbright33)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2012, 8:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/history-of-computer-virus/610692/3 "2012-01-26T08:37:44Z")
I stand corrected. I have not Googled it until now. I was going by my memory. It is the first PC virus that did anything significant in the wild, besides display text. I see the Brain brothers were interviewed in 2011. Keep in mind the 1987 date is wrong. Technically the word Virus was coined before the idea occurred to us. ---
**Author:** ![SeamusMcCool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/82dd89/32.png) [@SeamusMcCool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SeamusMcCool)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2012, 12:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/history-of-computer-virus/610692/4 "2012-01-26T12:18:52Z")
No, I have no interest in some scumbag loser whose life is so meaningless that he must waste his time, and everybody else’s, in some kind of pathetic cry for attention. ---
**Author:** ![sbright33](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8e8cbc/32.png) [@sbright33](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sbright33)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2012, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/history-of-computer-virus/610692/5 "2012-01-26T14:33:42Z")
Thank you so much for your kindness! It has shaped my life and contributed to my success more than anything else in college. ---
**Author:** ![Mister\_Cheech](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Mister\_Cheech](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mister_Cheech)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2012, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/history-of-computer-virus/610692/6 "2012-01-26T15:28:19Z")
> [@sbright33](#): > > I stand corrected. I have not Googled it until now. Shouldn’t that be the first thing you’d do? In all situations? ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2012, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/history-of-computer-virus/610692/7 "2012-01-26T15:30:50Z")
Anybody in any way associated with viruses, virus writers and other such scumbags are too dumb to use wiki. ---
**Author:** ![Hal\_Briston](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a9a28c/32.png) [@Hal\_Briston](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hal_Briston)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2012, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/history-of-computer-virus/610692/8 "2012-01-26T16:20:31Z")
Uh oh. I’m associated with virus writers (guys who did it back in the early 90’s in closed environments, just to see what could be done – and now pull down unreal salaries working for anti-virius companies). What is this “weekee” thing? I can’t seem to understand it! ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2012, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/history-of-computer-virus/610692/9 "2012-01-26T16:35:24Z")
The “weekee” is right next to the “Any” key. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![sbright33](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8e8cbc/32.png) [@sbright33](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sbright33)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2012, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/history-of-computer-virus/610692/10 "2012-01-26T16:39:56Z")
Certainly I “Googled” it 20 years ago before there was a Google search engine. What’s with all the Anger? We did not mean to cause any harm. That’s part of the story that might surprise you. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2012, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/history-of-computer-virus/610692/11 "2012-01-26T16:55:12Z")
> [@sbright33](#): > > What’s with all the Anger? I suspect it’s more “extreme skepticism”. ---
**Author:** ![sbright33](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8e8cbc/32.png) [@sbright33](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sbright33)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2012, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/history-of-computer-virus/610692/12 "2012-01-26T17:02:17Z")
Skepticism of? ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2012, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/history-of-computer-virus/610692/13 "2012-01-26T17:04:13Z")
> [@sbright33](#): > > Skepticism of? That your friend created “the first PC virus that did anything significant in the wild, besides display text”, I would imagine. ---
**Author:** ![johnpost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f17d59/32.png) [@johnpost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnpost)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2012, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/history-of-computer-virus/610692/14 "2012-01-26T17:11:11Z")
> [@sbright33](#): > > There was an article in Time magazine. The 2 people involved in stopping it became famous in this field, maybe even still today. They could verify their role in the story. what issue, date and article? ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2012, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/history-of-computer-virus/610692/15 "2012-01-26T17:12:06Z")
> [@sbright33](#): > > Skepticism of? I can’t speak for the others, but I doubt your friend did anything significant. You don’t seem to know when the first virus was created, or when the term ‘virus’ was first used. So I doubt you know anything else about the history of computer viruses either. And I can tell you that unless your friend’s virus was created prior to 1976, it certainly wasn’t the first one to do more than display text. ---
**Author:** ![johnpost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f17d59/32.png) [@johnpost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnpost)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2012, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/history-of-computer-virus/610692/16 "2012-01-26T17:16:25Z")
> [@sbright33](#): > > One interesting chapter is how it was developed simultaneously along with a professor’s thesis paper, without any knowledge in either direction. Both were at the same University with all the work being done across the street. We did not attend his class. There is much in common between the two. Nobody else wrote a similar paper that year. Everybody assumed in the newspaper that there was a connection of course. We did not find out about this until it was finished and released. who is the professor, what is the title and year of the thesis? what newspaper, date, page for the mistaken article? ---
**Author:** ![sbright33](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8e8cbc/32.png) [@sbright33](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sbright33)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2012, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/history-of-computer-virus/610692/17 "2012-01-26T17:23:06Z")
My goal is not to prove it to you. I was also involved in creating the original virus discussion list with Ken. What PC viruses did something besides display or store text before 1986? Please be specific. I would love to be proved wrong before I finish writing, instead of after. I am working in this industry for 24 years so I do have a clue. I Googled when the term was coined, just like everyone else. Before that I was going by memory from 26 years ago. I have not been able to find the article online, but I will look for the printed magazine I saved when I have a chance. ---
**Author:** ![sbright33](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8e8cbc/32.png) [@sbright33](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sbright33)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2012, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/history-of-computer-virus/610692/18 "2012-01-26T17:32:12Z")
[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,968508,00.html](http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,968508,00.html) There are many mistakes in the article. Can you read it without being a subscriber? ---
**Author:** ![sbright33](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8e8cbc/32.png) [@sbright33](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sbright33)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2012, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/history-of-computer-virus/610692/19 "2012-01-26T17:40:18Z")
The articles that mention the connection between us are in the local paper and the university paper, all of which I have saved. How is this most relevant to you? Since it is false. There were many psychological analyses and personality profiles done that year. Some looked at the code first. They interviewed Ken who I was friends with. Many wrong guesses. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2012, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/history-of-computer-virus/610692/20 "2012-01-26T17:44:51Z")
> [@sbright33](#): > > My goal is not to prove it to you. It should be. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/history-of-computer-virus/610692.md?page=2)