Fundamentals of Information Systems Security, 4th Edition

A Brief History of Malicious Code Threats

In the early days of computing, malware spread from computer to computer via diskettes that were handed from person to person. This manual transmission method was called sneakernet because someone had to walk from one computer to another for those computers to communicate. With sneakernets, a virus could take months to spread across the globe. In contrast, today’s viral infections spread via networks and can cross the globe in a matter of seconds. As the virus-writing community evolved, more and more sophisticated viruses began to emerge. Some could spread via email, mobile code, or macros, and others could spread in multiple ways.

1970s and Early 1980s: Academic Research and UNIX

The idea of self-replicating ...