A Brief History of Computer Viruses

[@pinkopat]

My dad has been working in IT since the '80s, it's 2019 and he still needs to tell his co-workers not to open shady emails.

[@computerhelpcc]

Yep, crypto viruses get delivered that way

[@CoasterMan13Official]

@Adam Anderson Ierullo [Student] they're scams.

[@1.4142]

Curiosity killed the cat

[@7Dok]

Quality>Quantity Thanks for the video.

[@quantum3527]

Timothy Moore Quantity*

[@7Dok]

@@quantum3527 thanks for the correction

[@treeweenie5360]

His mic is lacking

[@Ali107]

Quality *AND* Quantity should be number one!

[@crysomemoreee]

Ha its me. But from a old account

[@mactrololo7326]

Thanatos: *Exists* Files: I don't feel so good.

[@planetarycube5988]

It's also named after the Greek god of death

[@Mars8765]

Thanatophobia

[@oi9157]

Thanatos means death in Greek

[@mr.haroldthetoaster6263]

Thanatos is the Greek God of Death, so the Infinity War Reference doesn’t make much sense.

[@RichRacc]

Mr. Harold The Toaster Thanos killed trillions. Technically.

[@Zilkenian_Davenport]

I actually almost got my computer infected with Sasser back in 2005, however, I had a quite old, but well updated, Panda antivirus (back when it was good), which stopped Sasser from infecting my system, and put it in the quarantine bin. I already knew about Sasser from the news, so seeing it in my computer was both frightening, and very exciting. It increased my interest for computers, systems, software and malware. Thanks to little moments like this I'm a server technician today.

[@VeryRGOTI]

That's amazing

[@alsohedge6537]

So Creepers were annoying before Minecraft? Interesting...

[@poble]

aw man

[@DVINTHEHOUSEMAN]

AlsoHedgie creeper aww man

[@NtQueryInformationProcess]

please no Revenge here

[@malwaretestingfan]

I would not be surprised if Notch actually was inspired by them.

[@socketlike]

i dont know that minecrafters took it this far

[@AlphaDestroyer-pw8on]

I really like this new style of editing. Keep up the good work! Your videos are very fun to watch!

[@trans_t0luene]

I love that Creeper was represented by a Minecraft Creeper

[@milymilo]

Awwww man

[@themaus3847]

Garlic Bread no u.

[@Damnto]

Natsuki Lutick lol same

[@Terstanlol]

Aww man...

[@retr0nus]

Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww maaan

[@SquirrelMonkeyCom]

Those were the days!

[@traducandinromana3567]

Omg

[@coolguy6830]

i love your chanel so i want you to make a vid were a virus goes on a computer 💻

[@fortune3911]

Yeah!

[@comradepingu8091]

@@coolguy6830 channel

[@comradepingu8091]

@@coolguy6830 computer then a desktop💻 emoji what

[@zaiden2becausejustzaidenisused]

The Science Elf: *Uploads a brief history of computer viruses* *footofaferret wants your phone number*

[@nsytr06]

?

[@DoubleD96203]

@@nsytr06 he is a content creator who focused on brief history of random things

[@placeholdertag]

@Bird Brain literally who?

[@alsohedge6537]

And when the world needed him most, he vanished.

[@the32bitguy]

This sucks. Has anyone found news of him?

[@TheLastMillennial]

It's such a shame you've left KZbin without a trace. Your amazing videos were the role model of my channel which got better because of you! Although I'm disappointed you never explained your disappearance to anyone, I want to make you aware of how much I valued the content you made. Hope you're doing well, wherever you are.

[@kingepic8477]

He bacc

[@yeppiidev]

@@kingepic8477 true

[@adamsfusion]

In recent times they've even been weaponized. Stuxnet, for instance, targeted the supervisory control systems for nuclear enrichment centrifuges.

[@prismstudios001]

Great video! And extra credit for NOT having it morph over into an ad for a VPN or something....

[@Dragonblaster1]

The first self-replicating program was actually an accident at some American college, where a professor had created a monitoring program that would keep each computer in good shape. However, due to a coding bug, it multiplied and multiplied until the computer drives were full of copies of the monitor program.

[@yeetyeet5079]

What is it called

[@Dragonblaster1]

@@yeetyeet5079 It wasn’t called anything, because naming computer viruses hadn’t been a thing up to that point.

[@yeetyeet5079]

@@Dragonblaster1 oh so the program wasn’t named and can you send me an article or video on it

[@sbright33]

I wrote this the Lehigh Virus in 1986. The year is often recorded wrong.

[@EgregoreOffical]

HE UPLOADS AGAIN, unless ive been missing out on him

[@wordart_guian]

last time was a month ago so not really long

[@kaisunami]

*BLINK*

[@aidanokeeffe7928]

Your profile picture, I love that picture. You must have a good sense of humor

[@EgregoreOffical]

Aidan O'Keeffe I am humor

[@indiam19]

He hasn't uploaded in 7 months.

[@inactiveaccount386]

The Science Elf, you might not believe me, but on an old account of mine, I was subscribed to you when only had around 800 to 900 subscribers. I don't remember the exact amount of subscribers you had, but it was a very low amount. I just love your videos and I also love how much your channel has grown in popularity. Keep up the great content!

[@MrMiss-cp9bw]

Pretty neat video, but I honestly liked the first half more than the second. I kept waiting for some more glimpses of the old viruses but none came. I remember the times when reinstalling Windows, only to have to wait to connect it to the internet so you/I could patch out MSblaster. Great times ^.^ Anywho, you got a thumbs up - Keep up the good work. Nice editing and especially volume control!

[@Cramergaming]

this was probably the first ever non scary virus video ive seen on youtube before

[@ChrisnOut]

People in 2019: Creeper, Aw man People in the 1970s, Creeper, Aw man

[@nadaesperavel]

Thats makes sense.

[@GDSE_]

So we back on the computer

[@purrplaysLE]

@@earendil8467 Side, side to side

[@Sumsulsulsususj]

@TheSusMan oh no its anti virus time to by by pass by by bypass

[@ath4590]

imma make a virus that changes everiones wallpaper to the stonks meme

[@Amber_123]

please do it

[@andrive]

Lol

[@SlavicUnionGaming]

Black Hat is referred to as a bad guy hacker, i hope you realize you are showing everyone on youtube that your a criminal!!!

[@cr4shmycar118]

Artemsoko bruh

[@Jebbidan]

@erik masterchef no it's a C++ script

[@reallyWyrd]

Once upon a time, I dabbled in the *idea* of writing viruses including "good guy" viruses. But I had already reached the conclusion that a virus could never really *be* "good" regardless of its creator's intent. The only winning move is not to play. But I did attempt to look at some code of an actual virus one time. It was very hard to follow. I'm trying to read it in the disassembler , and it wasn't making sense. Eventually I realized that was because the code was set up to jump part way through a jump instruction right at the start, and then a lot of that again throughout.

[@LvXgaming1]

This is like a high quality animated danooct1 video. Thanks for filling that hole.

[@heythatsprettygood6492]

Thank you for not making a "creeper aw man" joke

[@tvg2848]

Don't say that to anyone in the comments

[@gneurshk4906]

Creeper? *end this joke pls,* man

[@avi8aviate]

@@gneurshk4906 For the *bold* to work, the punctuation mark has to be inside the asterisks. Same goes for _italics_ and -strikethrough.-

[@gneurshk4906]

@@avi8aviate Thanks!

[@avi8aviate]

@@gneurshk4906 No prob.

[@Enstrayed]

Can't believe it's been 9 months since this guy left. Miss you bro, please come back.

[@Davethreshold]

Thank you for this! Very cool! For those who may not be experienced: I update my Win-10 machines every single day, with no exceptions. When you do that, it updates your antivirus to catch a "zero-day" virus = a brand new one that was released that day. The ones out there these days are not cute ones like the days of old but are invented by TRUE psychopaths. 😟

[@Darticus42]

As someone who's doing grad studies in computer security, I hadn't even learned of the history of computer viruses before the Morris word... fascinating!

[@UlzYT]

I come back here every now and then, to check for a new video. If ever you decide to come back, I'll be here, and so will the rest of us!

[@gabrieldenison8481]

please continue making videos you have some of the best vintage tech videos I've ever seen so far I really enjoy your content thank you so much

[@AiOinc1]

I always wondered if Wannacry or other such viruses actually did encrypt anything. I remember seeing a couple viruses just like that demanding $300 or something in MoneyPak form around 2012 or so. It was annoying but you could reliably remove them without harming your computer by just going into safe mode. Nothing seemed "Encrypted" to me.

[@sjrnoodles5721]

It’s been 6 whole months.. Is he still there?

[@bledlbledlbledl]

4:21 I was wondering if you'd mention THAT one. I got that on one of my disks in 1988 from playing video games and sharing floppies. Noticed that the bootup didn't sound right, used DOS Debug to look at the disk sectors, wrote a small Pascal program to remove the "Brain" virus. (same goes for the "stoned"(b) virus). 5:10 the "brain" virus did do SOME damage; it moved the boot record to part of the directory sectors, so if your disk had lots of files, some of them would be lost.

[@Lazar-w9u]

Love the new style!

[@IsaacVeyronNeedsSubs]

A computer worm named "Creeper"? Aww man

[@TheGrandMaster110]

"Mischievous mass-mailing malware menaces" Marry me.

[@BensOnTheRadio]

The Science Elf's last video was about viruses, then the Coronavirus happened...coincidence? I think not!

[@gallopinggoose6891]

I really hope that he comes back soon.

[@stonesword5124]

@@gallopinggoose6891 Definitely

[@rasilmore2211]

Yeah where is he?

[@rasilmore2211]

@@gallopinggoose6891 Yeah where is he?

[@rasilmore2211]

@@stonesword5124 Yeah where is he?

[@vamp97]

As a rookie interested in cyber security, this was really interesting!

[@Denshi]

Isn't it kinda weird you used a bug icon to represent viruses instead of a virus icon

[@heroslippy6666]

what is a virus icon?

[@Denshi]

@@heroslippy6666 images.app.goo.gl/hbtc7P4SDtfYaqh66

[@heroslippy6666]

@@Denshi oh ok, that makes sense

[@Dragon_Slasher]

Notch in 1971: *Gets creeper virus* Notch in 2004ish: *Creates the creeper pig* Also notch in 2004ish: *Creates the creeper*

[@somepersononplanetearth9577]

*2009, not 2004.

[@pirat3]

Hello, the Science Elf, I am very curious about how you built your "propintosh". Could you do a video in the future, showing how you've done it (step by step).

[@aididazman6280]

This really taught me without making it kinda boring good job my guy.

[@askhowiknow5527]

My hero. Good morning

[@randominternetuser5123]

love your videos! keep it up :D

[@msinfo32]

love these videos, keep it up

[@raseruuu3742]

Thank you for this video! We've been making a game about Viruses and our main virus character is ILY, the ILOVEYOU virus! It's one of our goals to make the characters "lore accurate" and stuff! So this helps support the research we've been doing.

[@raseruuu3742]

@Ana Mae Magtoto SOFTWAR, it's a Visual Novel

[@AlejandroFerrariMc]

6:35 "Yeah, I don't really know what to put here." / "The same thing as the left, but encrypted. " LOL

[@theparrot271]

Wait how did you get text from that?

[@AlejandroFerrariMc]

@@theparrot271 it's just HEX encoded ASCII.

[@AwlrightProductions]

Great video! Lot of interesting information here. Keep it up!

[@thesussyfoodcridictofameri2687]

I miss this channel

[@DiegoDiegoDiegoDiegoDiegoDiego]

Only 90s kid remember when The Science Elf posted

[@indiam19]

Exactly.

[@shrimpiee56]

Creeper, Aww man he blew up my god dang files.

[@Terstanlol]

@Holoskian oh no is you again cause they will steal our documents

[@l.williams5746]

I know someone who spent years writing a book on their 2011-ish Dell laptop, only for all their hard work to be soiled in 2018 by a ransomware attack. They to this day have not been able to even view their years of hard work, which was only saved on that computer for privacy purposes.

[@ihartmacz]

@The Science Elf - Come back to us :(

[@eddiesnipez]

I almost thought you were going to say ass blaster when you mentioned those two viruses 😂

[@sagi-dg8ht]

sans blaster

[@khmerkandal121]

are you still making videos?

[@khmerkandal121]

or did you retire?

[@shiwanshprakash9224]

Will you post any video or did you retire from your public life. So many events happened in past few months.

[@AlvaroR04]

Yes but where is the CIH Virus?? And Stuxnet Virus??

[@ccgarciab]

Stuxnet shows how reality often surpasses fiction.

[@onyhow]

Yeah, both should have been mentioned (and maybe Stuxnet successors). CIH was particularly deadly back then too.

[@throwaway6380]

Oh wow, you know what Stuxnet is? We're so impressed...

[@hyraemous]

I like this. Great work bro!

[@blackneos940]

Who here is looking forward to the 2020's, and the potential advances in Tech they will bring?? :)

[@heroslippy6666]

My favorite one will be the iphone that costs $1000 edit: $1000 already exists, meant $10,000

[@blackneos940]

@@heroslippy6666 C'mon, you're being conservative about it. :) It'll be more like 20,000... With a depressed Chinese worker slave included.

[@spaghetti1493]

... Its the worst

[@blackneos940]

@@spaghetti1493 Yeah, I found that out the hard way... :(

[@rookieonraceway]

The actual first macro virus was dmv. I don't blame you for missing that since the creator made it wild after concept was made.

[@alexandert8620]

When is the next video coming???

[@the_egg_]

He might be dead, nobody really knows...

[@karan69420_]

Segurazo antivirus (also known as SAntivirus) is described as anti-virus software that includes real-time protection, threat detection, and protection of data and passwords. In fact, this program is a potentially unwanted application (PUA), since it is distributed through the download or installation set-ups of other software. Many people download and install software of this type unintentionally. Segurazo allows users to run a quick or full scan. To remove any detected threats, however, they are required to activate/register it - in effect, pay for the 'full version'. Do not trust programs that are offered in the set-ups of other software. Furthermore, these programs provide dubious results - they detect false issues and do not fix any real problems. In summary, they trick people into paying for bogus software registrations. There is a strong possibility that Segurazo is one of these rogue programs. Additionally, developers often add more than one PUA to download or installation set-ups. They use this method to distribute browser hijackers, adware-type apps, and other PUAs. Browser hijacking apps change browser settings to promote fake search engines or other dubious web addresses. Additionally, these PUAs record IP addresses, geolocations, URLs of opened pages, entered search queries, and other similar details relating to users' browsing habits. Developers share the data with other parties (potentially, cyber criminals) who misuse it to generate revenue. Adware-type apps show various ads (coupons, banners, surveys, pop-ups, etc.). If clicked, these lead people to untrustworthy websites. In some cases, they proliferate unwanted apps - once clicked, they run scripts that lead to download and installation of potentially unwanted applications. SAntivirus is an unwanted program installed on users’ computers without their knowledge (usually by other software bundles). SAntivirus can change the settings of your home or work network by using them for its own purposes and make your system vulnerable to other malicious threats.

[@karan69420_]

:) :) :)

[@kingo1539]

i had segurazo on my old pc

[@naufalzaqie]

When youre uploading again :'(

[@icewithrice6462]

Creeper virus: i am the creeper. My computer: awwwww man

[@Uzedrname]

00:47 Im just WAITING for people to start commenting the lyrics to revenge.

[@KofolaDealer]

@@e-lee-za6613 So we back in the mine

[@kacperw587]

Swinging our pickaxe from,

[@The0ttoZone]

@benclark06 side, side to side

[@ryanasazaki1291]

This task, a grueling one

[@gitcat6671]

@@ryanasazaki1291 hope to find some diamonds tonight

[@andrive]

WE NEED THIS GUY BACK

[@chiqen1766]

Anyone else really hoping for him to come back?

[@paulclalchungnunga2052]

Very informative , whole lotta thanks for the post tbh

[@elliotbaines2100]

Computer: "I'm the creeper catch me if you can" Me: "Aww Man"

[@winme11]

So way back in the mines

[@hugge2417]

@@qwerty_1871 Side Side to side

[@winme11]

Hoping to find diamonds tonight night night diamonds tonight

[@winme11]

Heads up

[@winme11]

You hear a sound turn around and look up

[@blazedyoda8608]

I'm 21 and I've used pcs all my life nearly and i have never experienced a computer virus or worm or anything like that. Am i computing wrong?

[@rebane2001]

The same thing as the video, but encrypted.

[@Hyreia]

The virus that spread itself to every directory... am I misunderstanding directories as what we abstractly refer to as "folders" or did computers just not have very big file directories back in the day? Did it not do subdirectories? I think I would notice an additional file in all my subdirectories eventually when I ls/dir/whatever.

[@W_Wolfie]

bro, you coming back?

[@kyles7087]

Great video mate!

[@hisuianpitch]

its been 3 months where are you bruv

[@-themightymittens-]

So, they started as (mostly) harmless projects, and are now big destructive files that can completely ruin computers. Interesting

[@Rexowogamer]

Yo Elf, are you okay? I love your content but you haven’t done anything in 7 months and you don’t have any social media sooooo UPDATE: they're fine ^^

[@rasilmore2211]

Yeah where is he?

[@Rexowogamer]

At this point I think he might’ve just abandoned KZbin, although one wonders why. The alternative is death, which I highly hope isn’t the case...

[@rasilmore2211]

@@Rexowogamer yeah i agree. i dont think it is death because if he would have died we would have known some how theres no way that a famous person dies and no one on the internet knows his family or someone will tell us if he died. And about the "Abandoned KZbin" part i am not sure. Okay for example if you where a youtuber and you made lots of money with each video and you could do this form the comfort of your house would you leave and get a gob? and have to wake up early to go to work? while when you are a youtuber you make a lot more money and you dont have to wake up early or do anything like that the bottom line is that I am not sure what happened to him /: but i think that he is burnt out a common side affect of being a youtuber thanks for reading!

[@Rexowogamer]

rasil more Yeah, I highly doubt both outcomes.

[@Solvent2407]

I really hope he’s okay

[@jpivarski]

Slightly before your first example, "Creeper," was the "Cookie Monster" that affected Multics systems in 1970. multicians.org/cookie.html Multics was the second time-sharing system and the one that inspired Bell Labs employees to invent Unix. I think that the Cookie Monster couldn't self-reproduce, however, since the "lock screen" was invented as a countermeasure. Don't leave your terminal logged in!

[@MikeGervasi]

First computer virus I was hit with was Boot B. It drove me nuts thinking my keyboard or port was faulty.

[@benb3316]

My fav commercial, or in my top 10 of all times is about the "I Love you" virus. Computer programmer/IT guy is checking in just before running to catch a plane to a vacation. Already dressed in cliche tacky but wonderful bermuda shirt and stuff... "Phil! You gotta help me! Someone LOVES me!" a fat, nerdy guy runs in saying. "Someone ... loves ... you....?" he says... trailing off to infinity... "Yes! They sent me an email with an attachment, but then my computer went blank..." Then everyone's computer goes out. So vacation is cancelled or no job to come back to when its done... And common knowledge at the time could take even a top guy weeks to be sure its gone... Now it was just for some kind of services an IT guy should have either used, used something else or programmed something himself. But like the ads for pharmaceuticals "Scream till daddy buys me!" stuff.

[@LuigiBrown]

0:43 Aw Man

[@natalieeuley1734]

I feel like this should have mentioned more. Like software bundles, ad viruses, viruses installed from software extensions, Flash and ActiveX viruses, etc...

[@curlyhaircupid]

Science elf... are you okay? You haven’t posted in 9 months bro... I hope ur okay

[@indiam19]

Make that 10 months

[@griefschicken8875]

bro.. your channel is so underrated..

[@emirvmendoza]

Hello, The Science Elf. Hope you're still alive, and well.

[@rasilmore2211]

Yeah where is he?

[@half-faust]

Understanding all of this does not stop me imagining a literal worm whenever someone mentions a computer worm.

[@tvg2848]

Nobody: Absolutely nobody: Literally no one in the universe: 9 year olds at 0:46: _aw man_

[@tvg2848]

Nobody: ThatRipOff: _Can we please, for the love of all things holy, stop using this painfully unfunny "Nobody: " crap??_

[@tvg2848]

@@ThatRipOff I'm not funny, what's your point?

[@treborironwolfe]

Don't fret, little Welchia, for in this world "no good deed goes unpunished."

[@CEKROM]

0:46 Aww Man! =D

[@mrgtmodernretrogamingtech6891]

Another Quality Content sir! Thanks! =)

[@TUYonYouTube]

you haven’t uploaded in a long time

[@gabrielr.9590]

Yeah where is he?

[@rasilmore2211]

Yeah where is he?

[@rasilmore2211]

@@gabrielr.9590 Yeah where is he?

[@rasilmore2211]

Yeah where is he?

[@loganlee106]

this is the best science channel. ;)

[@immanuelsuleiman7550]

where the fuck are you i miss my tech history did you get a job whats up my dude

[@skajmerstarekonto]

i really like ypur videos , when i see your video in notifications i know it's going to be good

[@davay2533]

Hey, how come you haven't uploaded in 8 months hmmm

[@rasilmore2211]

Yeah where is he?

[@werre2]

SOMETHING WONDERFUL HAS HAPPENED YOUR AMIGA IS ALIVE

[@janno288]

Can you come back please ?

[@emanuelgaddis1574]

Windows has found an unknown file called windows 32 do you want to delete it?

[@biscuits4761]

Nobody: People in the 70s: *aw man*

[@TheMaroonWalrus]

Nice video! I enjoyed it

[@immanuelsuleiman7550]

I hope you see this. I love your channel. It is the best straight forward tech history. I will gladly contribute to a patreon. Please come back.

[@tropicarls]

Fuck yes! Your channel isn't dead!