ORIGIN OF VIRUSES

1974 - the first was Animal. Some erroneously place the 1982 appearance of Rich Skrenta's Elk Cloner at the top of the list, but Elk Cloner was merely an adaptation of Animal. The first PC-specific virus to appear in the wild generally is accepted to be Brain, from 1986. You might find to be of interest this January 26, 2007 Blog Entry; it is a topical 25th anniversary comment by the author of Elk Clone.