Happy 40th Birthday, Computer Virus... NOT...

The Creeper virus made its debut in 1971. The Creeper looked for a machine on the network, transfered to it, then displayed the message “I’m the creeper, catch me if you can!” and then starts over, thereby hoping from system to system. It was a pure proof of concept that tied the roots of computer viruses to those of the Internet.

Since then, the number of malware instances boomed from 1,300 in 1990, to 50,000 in 2000, to over 200 million in 2010. Besides sheer quantity, viruses, which were originally used as academic proof of concepts, quickly turned into geek pranks, then evolved into cyber-criminal tools. By 2005, the virus scene had been monetized, and virtually all viruses were developed with the sole purpose of making money... More