Top 15 PC Viruses Since 1986

The journey from Brain to Flame. Know about the most prominent creatures of the world, that we have always wanted to quarantine. 

The journey from Brain to Flame. Know about the most prominent creatures of the world, that we have always wanted to quarantine.  Now days, computer viruses are fast treading into our day to day life in the form of Trojans, back doors, worms, malwares, spy wares and many more. A peek into the history of these notorious creatures reveal that the first ever PC virus appeared in the year 1986. It was named 'Brain' and multiplied itself by writing its code to the boot sector of floppy disks. Since then, several species have come and gone. Kaspersky Lab has compiled a list of 15 most influential malicious programs in history.  “For the last 15 years, we have been working round the clock every day analysing and combating all kinds of IT threats that have evolved in that time from cyber hooliganism, via cybercrime to cyber warfare. Today it’s more important than ever to cooperate against digital threats. Recent attacks such as Stuxnet, Duqu and Flame have shown just how vulnerable IT infrastructures are to military and terrorist threats. But we are doing all we can to prevent the potential disasters that could result from these kinds of attacks,” said Eugene Kaspersky, CEO and co-founder, Kaspersky Lab. Here's the list of the top 15 viruses: 1986- Brain, the first PC virus appeared. It spread by writing its code to the boot sector of floppy disks. 1988- The Morris worm infected around 10 per cent of the computers connected to the Internet (about 6000 computers). 1992- Michelangelo, the first virus to attract massive media attention.  1995- Concept, the first macro virus.  1999- Melissa ushers in the era of mass-mailing of malware responsible for huge global epidemics.  2003- Slammer, a fileless worm, responsible for a massive worldwide epidemic. 2004- Cabir, first Proof-of-Concept for Symbian; propagated via Bluetooth.  2006- Leap, the first virus for Mac OSX.  2007- Storm Worm (Zhelatin) pioneers the use of distributed C&C servers. 2008- Koobface, the first malware to target Facebook.  2008- Conficker, one of the biggest epidemics in history, infects businesses, home users and governments in over 200 countries. 2010- FakePlayer, SMS Trojan for Android. 2010- Stuxnet, a targeted attack on SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) systems; signaled the advent of the cyberwar era.  2011- Duqu, a sophisticated Trojan that collects intelligence about its targets.  2012- Flame, a highly sophisticated, malicious program that is actively being used as a cyber weapon to target entities in several countries.