iVerify: Added security for iPhone and iPad users
I'm usually wary of security apps, but iVerify by Trail of Bits is different. It comes highly recommended and offers a lot of features in a small download. ...
It's been almost 25 years since the first PC computer virus left users looking at corrupted floppies, lost work and perplexing messages. In that time, the art of automated malfeasance has progressed to the point that it's part of the armoury of international geopolitics.
(Brain-virus image by Avinash Meetoo, CC2.5)
It sounded like science fiction, but it was all too real. Basit and Amjad Farooq Alvi, a pair of software programmers from Pakistan, became annoyed at people duplicating their products, and so created what was supposed to be a kill switch for illicit copies. But the design was flawed; the anti-copy software could duplicate itself — and it did.
The first worldwide PC virus, Brain worked by changing the boot sector of a floppy. When an infected floppy was put into a computer, it installed Brain in the computer's memory, from where it infected new floppies as they were inserted.
The brothers included their names, address and phone numbers in the virus, ostensibly to offer their services to decontaminate infected computers. They subsequently regretted this.
Caption by: Rupert Goodwins
Join Discussion