The first computer virus - 'Elk Cloner' - was born on this day in 1982. The prank virus was harmless...but today’s malicious software is no joke. Is your business ready to tackle modern cyber threats? We can help you check

#TechHistory #ElkCloner #Malware
https://thisdayintechhistory.com/01/30/first-computer-virus-written/

First Computer Virus Written - This Day in Tech History

January 30, 1982 Richard Skrenta writes the first PC virus code, which is 400 lines long and disguised as an Apple II boot program called “Elk Cloner“.

This Day in Tech History

On this day in 1982, the world's first computer virus, Elk Cloner, spread. It started as a prank and caused no harm, instead displaying a poem on the victim's screen. Things have certainly moved on since!

#TechHistory #ElkCloner #ThrowbackTech https://www.techtarget.com/searchsecurity/definition/Elk-Cloner

What Is Elk Cloner and How Did It Work?

Elk Cloner is the first computer virus known to have spread in the wild. Learn more about the virus and its effects.

Security
@SinclairSpeccy After been reading through the paper from 2020 on the boot sectors in use by the #ElkCloner, it is clear that to get it working, the disk should be a slave and not a master disk. There are three areas of the boot that needs to be adjusted, track 0, track 1 and track 2. On track 0, the area $0A00 ... $0B00 should contain the loader part of the Elk Cloner. On track 1, the jump located at $1080 should be modified to jump to the Elk Cloner code instead of the regular DOS part. On track 2 the Elk Loader should be installed from $2300 ... $2400 (it occupies only two sectors and even though there is more empty space after the occupied part, it overwrites a few bytes at the beginning of $2300 which are set, but obviously not used, $00 and $ff bytes). I have been sitting looking with hexedit on original disk images from DOS 3.3 analyzing the structure and what happens to it with different alterations using image tools. The AppleCommander seems to refuse to overwrite the boot sector of the image it creates, so it is not that straight forward to get it on e.g. location $2300 with e.g. the small utility 'ac' from the #AppleCommander package.