Well... 25 years ago... I was born! YAY! But 11 months before my birth, 'Brain' was born.
Of course, I am not talking about my brain but what I am talking about is something REVOLUTIONARY. Two brothers in a small town of Lahore created the world's first PC virus. They called it 'Brain'. It infected 360 kb (kilobyte) 5.25 inch floppy disks and is considered to be the world's first full-stealth virus. The virus used to copy itself in the memory and then transferred itself to other floppy disks meanwhile, it did not effect the hard disk. It changed the disk's volume label to (c)BRAIN as well.
Intentionally, Brain had no intentions of harming computers. It only slowed down the disk access or cause timeouts due to which floppy disks failed to work in some of the cases. As the virus marked its 25th year of inception, F-Secure, an computer security solutions company, went out to track the original creators and made a documentary out of it.
If you think that trailer is dramatic, then I agree too. I am not sure what was F-Secure's point behind the orchestral chanting music with half dialogs but it surely makes the virus look bad.
Indeed, with all the bad things going around in Pakistan, having the title of being home to the world's PC first virus not adds much to our glory. However, it seems that there are several points which we do not cater to look at when we talk about this. Had this been created in the West, the whole outlook would have been different.
The creators of Brain claim that they wrote the infectious script in order to prevent illegal copying of their software. They did not mean mischief, but were only protective. If one believes in their story, it can be deduced that Brain might be the world's earliest incarnations of an unpopular electronic copyright security tactic known as 'root-kit'. Furthermore, as I have earlier mentioned that Brain was full-stealth, it gave way to a whole new range of security products. The creators of Brain showed that computer security was not one-dimensional. It was open for attack from various sides. Thus, it opened up a new side of industry.
If one observes closely, the Windows Genuine Advantage by Microsoft works almost on the same lines. If your Windows is not genuine, you have to contact Microsoft for a remedy. Brain also holds the distinction to be the only computer virus which contains the contact of its creator. The message inside the virus told the user to contact the creators for "vaccination". Some also take this as a good example of "viral" marketing by electronic means.
Day in and day out, people continue to talk about Brain. However, there is a second side to this story as well. It is about the first anti-virus developed to counter Brain. The story somehow never caught the hype but very sound IT professionals in Pakistan claim that the first remedy to Brain virus was created inside the country. This anti-virus was created by the computer engineering students of N.E.D. University, Karachi. (If anyone knows them, send them to this blog.) It would have been great if F-Secure would have tried to track down these guys too.
This whole story shows has a bigger picture for us Pakistanis to see as well. Problems created in Pakistan might have global impacts, but it is good if they are solved by the nation itself.
Indeed, with all the bad things going around in Pakistan, having the title of being home to the world's PC first virus not adds much to our glory. However, it seems that there are several points which we do not cater to look at when we talk about this. Had this been created in the West, the whole outlook would have been different.
The creators of Brain claim that they wrote the infectious script in order to prevent illegal copying of their software. They did not mean mischief, but were only protective. If one believes in their story, it can be deduced that Brain might be the world's earliest incarnations of an unpopular electronic copyright security tactic known as 'root-kit'. Furthermore, as I have earlier mentioned that Brain was full-stealth, it gave way to a whole new range of security products. The creators of Brain showed that computer security was not one-dimensional. It was open for attack from various sides. Thus, it opened up a new side of industry.
If one observes closely, the Windows Genuine Advantage by Microsoft works almost on the same lines. If your Windows is not genuine, you have to contact Microsoft for a remedy. Brain also holds the distinction to be the only computer virus which contains the contact of its creator. The message inside the virus told the user to contact the creators for "vaccination". Some also take this as a good example of "viral" marketing by electronic means.
Day in and day out, people continue to talk about Brain. However, there is a second side to this story as well. It is about the first anti-virus developed to counter Brain. The story somehow never caught the hype but very sound IT professionals in Pakistan claim that the first remedy to Brain virus was created inside the country. This anti-virus was created by the computer engineering students of N.E.D. University, Karachi. (If anyone knows them, send them to this blog.) It would have been great if F-Secure would have tried to track down these guys too.
This whole story shows has a bigger picture for us Pakistanis to see as well. Problems created in Pakistan might have global impacts, but it is good if they are solved by the nation itself.
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