Broadband Tech > Security > Security > Going Viral: The First PC Virus

Going Viral: The First PC Virus

My "first" was the Stoned Virus (actually a variant) around 1991. As it turned out a whole bunch of PC's at work got infected with it as well and I had to go around and clean them up (I wasn't IT--we didn't have any back then).

Not long after that I started using anti-virus software--at first McAfee then Norton (for MS-DOS) and became more paranoid. Actually I don't remember the last time I had a virus although I've had a few FP's.
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Don't feed trolls--it only makes them grow!

Hell yeah...I still have some 5.25" floppies I know are teeming with nasties from when my damn gf took her WP homework to the Uni's computer lab and brought back a host of crap....that place had a VAX and a bunch of PC's with no AV.

I think it was the Rostov variant. Back then I used McAfee too on Win 3.1 later Win95, but mostly relied on F-Secure for DOS as it kicked McAfee's ass.

I had Terminate! comms proggie back in those days that allowed a DOS AV like F-Secure to scan incoming files from the BBS...long before real-time AV's on Win32.
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reply to antdude
I hate to admit this, and I don't want to sound off base, but...I've never really had one that got loose on my system. Anything that tried to join me and my system seems to have been trapped by one of my running programs...so far. I guess I have been very lucky as i, too, go back to the DOS days.

reply to StuartMW
Mine was the ping pong ball virus.

reply to StuartMW
Good one! I've totally lost myself and can't get up to par. And, it's my most unflattering color, too.

reply to Dustyn

quote:

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It was likely the most common and best known boot sector virus until outnumbered by the Stoned virus.

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reply to antdude
Stoned Empire.Monkey.a was the first and only virus I ever got.

Encountered it as I sorted through a pile of old floppies on my DOS machine some time around 1998.

reply to antdude
I remember seeing Santa Bowling in school all the time. Before that, I was lucky not to get anything since I started on the net in '92.
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A government big enough to give you everything you want, is strong enough to take everything you have.

reply to antdude
I think my first virus hit was Stealth virus for DOS back in mid 1990s/90s. My college friends and I got infected through 3.5" floppy disks from the university's computer labs. All you had to do is A: for the drive and boom infected! I remember we used McAfee (before they became crap) VirusScan for DOS to scan and clean!
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Ant @ »antfarm.ma.cx and »aqfl.net. Please do not IM/e-mail me for technical support. Use the forum! Disclaimer: The views expressed in this posting are mine, and do not necessarily reflect the views of my employer

reply to StuartMW
»en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ping-Pong_virus

reply to antdude

reply to jaykaykay

reply to antdude
I have never been infected. My wife's systems have been infected enough times for the both of us though.

reply to Name Game