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The first computer virus
Elk Cloner, the first computer virus "in the wild," was a boot sector virus developed by then high school student Rich Skrenta. It infected Apple II computers and caused the machines to display spoonerisms, inverted or false displays and clicking noises. -
The virus is born
Computer scientist Fred Cohen coined the term "virus" to describe a self-replication computer program. -
Michelangelo virus causes widespread scare
Michelangelo was a boot sector virus that could overwrite the sectors of the computer's hard drive or floppy disk on the Renaissance artist's birthday. This was the first virus to cause a widespread infection scare. -
Melissa worm released
The Melissa worm was released, targeting Microsoft Word and Outlook software and sending emails to the first 50 addresses in the victim's Outlook address book. It infected tens of thousands of computers, created a glut of network traffic and crashed email services. -
First OS X malware discovered
OSX/Leap-A or OSX/Oompa-A, the first ever malware attacking the Mac OS X, was discovered. -
Stuxnet detected
Stuxnet, the first worm that attacked industrial control systems, was detected. It targeted Iran's nuclear facilities and media reports suggested that it was developed by Israel and the United States. -
POS malware
US-CERT issued an advisory about the Backoff point-of-sale malware that had been infecting retailers' POS systems and stealing credit and debit card information.
