A Brief History of Cybercrime and Cyberwarfare - The Technical and Social History of Software Engineering - page 414

The concept of a computer virus showed up in science fiction before real com-
puter viruses were developed. A story by David Gerrold in Galaxy Magazine in
1969 used the term “virus” in its modern sense. But there were no computer vir-
uses in 1969. A few years later, a paper on self-replicating software packages was
published in 1972 by Veith Risak, who built a working virus in assembly language
that ran on a Siemens 4004 computer system.
The term “virus” as applied to a self-replicating piece of computer software
was first used in a technical paper in 1984 by Fred Cohen of the University of
Southern California. But apparently the term was coined by a colleague, Leonard
Adelman. Neither seemed to know about the Gerrold science fiction story.
One of the first known computer viruses was created in the 1970s on
ARPANET. It was called “the creeper,” and it infected computers and displayed a
message that said “I'm the creeper. Catch me if you can.”
There are now thousands of individual viruses and many classes and types of
viruses. This topic is not the place to discuss viruses in detail. Readers need to take
viral attacks seriously and be sure that their antivirus packagers are kept up to date.
There is a serious technological battle that is ongoing between virus creators
and virus destroyers. Usually, the virus destroyers are able to win, but the more
insidious kinds of viruses, such as polymorphic viruses and metamorphic viruses,
are challenging to detect and eliminate.
It is technically possible to build viral-resistant computers, but doing so re-
quires abandoning the von Neumann architecture. Viral-resistant software may
also be possible, and here, too, there may be a need for fundamental changes in
permissions and access rights.
Worms
Computer worms differ from computer viruses in one important way. Viruses
spread by being attached to other kinds of software such as emails. Worms are
freestanding packages that can travel and reproduce by themselves without requir-
ing help from other kinds of software.
The actual term “worm” seemed to derive from a 1975 science fiction novel
called Shockwave Rider by John Brunner. In that book, a self-replicating piece of
software is unleashed on a global network, and it was called a worm by the main
character.
The first worm to attract national attention was the famous Morris worm re-
leased in 1988 by Robert Morris. Although it did not have a payload and did not