The "Good Ol' Days" Of Computer Viruses

Nowadays, it seems that every piece of malware created has to deal with one thing: making the most money possible.

However, think back to the days when viruses were written to test the creator's skill or to cause as much havoc as possible. The days of MS-DOS and Windows 95-98 were haven for viruses, from the silly to the super destructive. Whether to scare the user, confuse the user or infuriate the user, there seemed to be a virus for every situation.

It's always been my hobby to research them, but recently I have begun filming them in action on an old standalone PC. If any of you care to, please check them out and let me know what you think.

MS-DOS Based Viruses:

LSD:
Cascade:
Casino:
Win9x based viruses:

CIH:
Smash:
Happy99: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b37Q1VwktVk&feature=related

There are also about 60 or so other videos on there, if any of you like to check 'em out.

If this is the wrong forum, sorry, this is my first post .

belive it or not, the first "virus" meant to do funny things, example: show a elf dancing on the screen or something.

people then realized the potential for destruction and well .... with the lack thereof in the law enforcement, we get destructive malware, adware, nagware, and anything you can think of.

Cool videos. Thanks for sharing.

I'm curious: Did the CIH virus actually damage the CMOS memory, or just overwrites it with a version that won't boot? Can you just reflash the BIOS to get it working again?

but also back then it wsa easier to infect computers as well.

Mr.Guvernment said:

but also back then it wsa easier to infect computers as well.

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was it?


back then the major way you were to get infected was via sneakernet (arpanet did also, but not as rampant)

now, you can browse for a hour on IE 6, 7, or 8 and catch hell. prove me wrong

back then msot people would accept any .exe over a messenger, you could send exe in email and so on and most people accepted them, now a days people have , somewhat, grown smarter and are more aware of viruses i think then 10 years ago when computers running windows were still fairly new, in a sense, for most people.

KillrBuckeye said:

Cool videos. Thanks for sharing.

I'm curious: Did the CIH virus actually damage the CMOS memory, or just overwrites it with a version that won't boot? Can you just reflash the BIOS to get it working again?

Click to expand...

Actually, the CIH virus overwrites a portion of the BIOS. It is possible to reflash it, but doing so requires an identical motherboard with a working BIOS and a few other tools, in order to transfer the data.

Mr.Guvernment said:

back then msot people would accept any .exe over a messenger, you could send exe in email and so on and most people accepted them, now a days people have , somewhat, grown smarter and are more aware of viruses i think then 10 years ago when computers running windows were still fairly new, in a sense, for most people.

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lol, guv i was talking more of back further

now we have outlook blocking harmful extensions (or potentially)

that and the general public is, as you stated, more aware of viruses then previously.

Mr.Guvernment said:

back then msot people would accept any .exe over a messenger, you could send exe in email and so on and most people accepted them, now a days people have , somewhat, grown smarter and are more aware of viruses i think then 10 years ago when computers running windows were still fairly new, in a sense, for most people.

Click to expand...

Some people keep opening crap sent to them even now. Its annoying, but keeps me in business. I just hate when family does it cuz I fix it for free. I am glad people are learning tho, but the ones that get infected always seem to get the nastiest ones.