[jaws-uk] Re: first virus 20 years ago
- From: "Tristram Llewellyn" <tristram.llewellyn@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <jaws-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 17 Jun 2008 10:18:01 +0100
My first virus was late in 1990, not quite 20 years ago but almost and
was called "stoned" and was created by an individual campaigning for the
legalisation of marajuana some years before that even. The "stoned"
virus would stop your PC from booting and declare on-screen "You're PC
is now stoned!". You were stuck unless you could use a clean boot disk
and anti-virus, I am not even sure Norton anti-virus existed then and
cannot recall what it was but I think whatever company it was the idea
may have been brought by Norton for subsequent efforts. I stayed pretty
virus free for a number of years, things developed rather more sedately
on the virus front then. Then I ended up coming into contact with a lot
of different PCs which brings me onto another point here.
I should correct a historical inaccuracy that may have escaped many that
listened to that Today package. In the package they connected the
Internet and viruses as if they were inextricably linked at the start.
This is not quite the case, in those days only a tiny number of people
had access to the Internet. Mainly it was academics and students in
Universities and colleges (mostly USA), there were tiny numbers of home
Internet users. Most computers were not connected to anything, the idea
of networking PCs was what you would call a hot topic in computer mags
of the time, but far fewer than the majority ever were connected to
anything let alone the Internet. These facts meant that the primary
vector of transmission was not a network connection or the internet but
a floppy disk, sometimes quaintly known as "sneaker net" as people
litterally trasported information on floppy disk by walking from machine
to machine. For many years until the widespread use the world wide web
in the mid 90s the floppy disk was the primary way viruses got around.
Therefore to assert that viruses and the Internet are hand in hand is a
little inaccurate. It was more the result of us growing up from the
Sinclair Spectrums and Commodore 64s of the day and heading into the
rise and eventual dominance of the IBM PC compatible clone PC which
ensured code good or bad ran an thousands upon thousands of machines and
Internet eventually making it all so much easier for this stuff to get
around.
Finally, both AVG version 8.0 and Nod 32 version 2.7 are accessible to
screen readers and represent the two choices of free and paid for
anti-virus.
Regards.
Tristram Llewellyn
Technical Support
Sight and Sound Technology
Welton House North Wing, Summerhouse Road, Moulton Park, NN3 6WD
Web : www.sightandsound.co.uk
Email: tristram.llewellyn@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Support: Support@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
General: info@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Phone:
Support line: 0845 634 7979
01604 798 000
Sight and Sound Technology Limited is a company registered in England
and Wales, with company number 1408275.
Sight and Sound Technology Limited is a trading subsidiary of 2nd
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Registered Address -
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York Road,
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