The term ‘Computer virus’ is certainly not new to our ears. It is like a vicious flu that we all want to avoid. Computer virus have been around since mid-1980’s and have only gained more notoriety in recent years. For those still new to this term, Virus is a type of malware that is capable of self-replicating itself and spreads from one machine to another.

Computer virus run parallel to the Internet as more and more devices get connected and people use the web, threats and security risk are rising. Making it necessary to know about the virus and how to stay protected.

Here we bring for you the list of 34 Top computer virus facts about latest computer virus that are being spread.

List of Malware & Computer Virus Facts

1. Mydoom virus in Jan 2004 infected almost a quarter-million computers in a day.
2. Storm a worm appeared in January 2007, infected around 50 million computers by October.
3. Leigh one of the first file viruses infects command.com files.
4. Symantec launched its first Norton Antivirus in 1990.
5. Tequuila (1991) is the first polymorphic computer virus.
6. First smartphone virus appeared in March 2005 and it is called Commwarrior-A
7. Before computer networks, most viruses were transferred using floppy disks.
8. The first fact of computer virus is that the first computer virus was known as Creeper created by computer programmer Bob Thomas at BBN technologies on Advanced Research Projects Agency Network (ARPANET) former of Internet. It was formed in early 1971 for experimental purposes and was capable of self-replicating.
9. The first Windows virus was WinVer 1.4, first .exe file was Groove and first boot virus was created by Faroq Alvi brothers.
10. Presently, malicious software threats can be divided broadly into 3 categories: viruses, worms and trojan horses. Their behavior differs from one another but they are made from same elementary instructions and computer logic.
11. Typically a malicious software author is a male between 14 and 25 years of age.
12. It is found that 70% of virus writers work on contract basis for a crime syndicate.
13. The worst ever MS-DOS virus was known as Michelangelo that worked in the background and created duplicate copies to spread itself.
14. Melissa was a powerful macro virus detected in 1999 that forced Microsoft and other big giants to shut down their email system until virus was removed completely.
15. Before Internet became popular most computer viruses were spread via removable media, particularly floppy disk. Elk Cloner was a dangerous virus that displayed poem after 51 triggers and was created as a joke. It was inserted in the floppy with a game.
16. According to Microsoft security intelligence report and consumer report 40% of US households are affected by computer viruses. Meaning we are walking on thin ice all the time.
17. Amazon was the most browbeaten target for phishing attack followed by Apple and eBay.
18. Internationally the US is at the highest risk of being attacked by computer viruses followed by Russia.
19. Computer virus writing is considered illegal in some countries, in Germany mass exchange of computer viruses for any reason is constrained and recently Finland too has announced that writing a computer virus program is an illegal act.
20. Due to consistently growing number of hackers and computer viruses new types of computer crimes have emerged and they are recognized as cyber terrorism, cyber extortion, cyber warfare.
21. Over 6000 new computer viruses are created and released every month.
22. MyDoom in 2004 was the most expensive computer virus of all times, it caused 38.5 billion$ of damages.
23. Anyone can become member of anonymous the most famous network of an international hacking activist. But only handful of them is capable of writing computer viruses.
24. By just reading an email your computer cannot get infected. The malware only gets activated when you click on a malicious link or open and infected attachment.
25. 90% of emails contains some type malware and most people are unaware about it.
26. In year 1990 there were only 50 known computer viruses but with the time they have increased to 48000+ viruses.
27. Normally, virus writers start off writing code as children to test their programming skills until it turns dangerous.
28. Virus writers are not hackers.
29. Facebook pays 500$ to anyone who finds a vulnerability in its system.
30. Regardless of number of security programs and security method there is not a single anti-virus that can detect and clean all the viruses.
31. Viruses can be written in multiple computer programming languages from assembly, C to Microsoft’s VBA.
32. I love was one of most viral computer virus ever.
33. Computer viruses cause millions of economic damages causing system failure corrupting data increasing maintenance list.
34. 1 out of 14 programs downloaded online are infected.

Also Read: How To Take Back Your Hacked System

These top computer virus facts might have come as a surprise to you but did you notice that there is a lot to learn about computer virus. They can come in any form from anywhere and anyone can create them.

You cannot secure yourself from getting attacked but can be careful by gaining information about them

Plus, there is a misconception that virus developer and hacker are same which is not true. Hackers always have a target like to steal information, create a backdoor but that is not the case with virus developer. Hackers are geniuses and viruses are mostly created by kids for fun.

Furthermore, due to enhanced security measures taken to protect computer system, browsers and at hardware level, hackers have discovered a more easier way to get into your system known as Social Engineering.

Cyber criminals send a link on users email or Facebook that looks genuine, which redirects them to a site and asks to download an application to view the content. This application is malicious that spreads infection on the entire network and when the user receives a warning from the browser it is usually ignored as he takes the mail as genuine.

This clearly states that viruses have been around for a much longer time than we think. They have not been this prevalent and dangerous as they are now. At present, there is not software that can guarantee 100% safety we can only hope that a solution is figured out to this problem. By the time this happens we will have to just try to stay cautious.

Must Read: Top 10 Malware Myths and Facts