Today is the 26th anniversary of the Brain virus It has been 26 years to the day when the computing world was introduced to its first virus: The Brain.The Brain was a boot sector virus that was written on and for floppy disks and spread by the exchange of disks between users. The Brain which was also known as LeHore or Pakistani Flu and Pakistani Brain, infected Microsoft MS-DOS-based computers and once installed would fill up the floppy, slamming its performance or rendering it useless.More: 25 tech touchstones of the past 25 yearsThe virus was written by two Pakistani brothers, Basit Farooq Alvi and Amjad Farooq Alvi, who have over the years said the Brain was not a virus but mechanism for them to protect their medical software from piracy. Amjad Farooq Alvi told Bloggerine just last year: “Our work was not intended to harm anyone. It was a friendly virus. We wrote it for our medical software to be protected from piracy, and was on a remote widespread. We did believe it would spread, but [we were] not filled with expectations [it would]. Brain was a virus, created for protection from copyright infringers only, for our medical software. The novelty of this virus is that it checked the significant bits of BIOS, if they were clear, it didn’t infect the disk. The sole purpose for it was to track and stop illegal copies of disk. We never intended for personal or financial gain. It was just an experimental approach, and surely of its outcome we were quite uncertain about. When the virus had widespread, people outrageously called us asking us to disinfect the virus. Our attempt to make them understand that the virus is not malicious but a friendly-one was successfully accepted and understood.”Still the Brain ignited a storm of boot sector viruses- also known as Master Boot Record (MBR) that continued to plague the industry for years. Much more destructive MBR virus types were to follow. The most infamous was Michelangelo that struck in April 1991 mostly in Europe. From Network World: “Today, the hard disk boot sector is a rare place to encounter malware, the notable exception in recent times being the nasty Mebroot rootkit of 2008. From time to time, older malware does pop back into existence when experts least expect it, the infamous example being the ‘Stoned.Angelina’ MBR virus that reportedly sneaked on to 100,000 Medion laptops in 2007. Stoned.Angelina originally dated from January 1994, a time period that might also explain Zimuse, which ESET believes bears a striking resemblance to the ‘One-half’ virus that came out of Slovakia in 1995.”For some other interesting coverage of virus’ and their impact take a look at The 10 Most Infamous Viruses and Computer Invaders: The 25 Most Infamous PC Viruses of All Time.Follow Michael Cooney on Twitter: nwwlayer8 and on Facebook Related content news Cisco CCNA and AWS cloud networking rank among highest paying IT certifications Cloud expertise and security know-how remain critical in building today’s networks, and these skills pay top dollar, according to Skillsoft’s annual ranking of the most valuable IT certifications. Demand for talent continues to outweigh s By Denise Dubie Nov 30, 2023 7 mins Certifications Certifications Certifications news Mainframe modernization gets a boost from Kyndryl, AWS collaboration Kyndryl and AWS have expanded their partnership to help enterprise customers simplify and accelerate their mainframe modernization initiatives. By Michael Cooney Nov 30, 2023 4 mins Mainframes Cloud Computing Data Center news AWS and Nvidia partner on Project Ceiba, a GPU-powered AI supercomputer The companies are extending their AI partnership, and one key initiative is a supercomputer that will be integrated with AWS services and used by Nvidia’s own R&D teams. By Andy Patrizio Nov 30, 2023 3 mins CPUs and Processors Generative AI Supercomputers news VMware stung by defections and layoffs after Broadcom close Layoffs and executive departures are expected after an acquisition, but there's also concern about VMware customer retention. By Andy Patrizio Nov 30, 2023 3 mins Virtualization Data Center Industry Podcasts Videos Resources Events NEWSLETTERS Newsletter Promo Module Test Description for newsletter promo module. Please enter a valid email address Subscribe