Brain is the industry standard name for a computer virus that was released in its first form on 19 January 1986,[1] and is considered to be the first computer virus for the IBM Personal Computer (IBM PC) and compatibles.
Welcome to the Dungeon (c) 1986 Amjads (pvt) Ltd VIRUS_SHOE RECORD V9.0 Dedicated to the dynamic memories of millions of viruses who are no longer with us today - Thanks GOODNESS!!! BEWARE OF THE er..VIRUS : this program is catching program follows after these ....$#@%$@!!
There are many minor and major variations to that version of the text. The virus slows down the floppy disk drive and makes seven kilobytes of memory unavailable to DOS. Brain was written by Amjad Farooq Alvi, who at the time lived in Chah Miran, near Lahore Railway Station, in Lahore, Pakistan. The Alvi brothers told Time magazine they had written it to protect their medical software from illegal copying, and it was supposed to target copyright infringement only.[2] The cryptic message "Welcome to the Dungeon", a safeguard and reference to an early programming forum on Dungeon BBS, appeared after a year because the brothers licensed a beta version of the code. The brothers could not be contacted to receive the final release of this version of the program.
Brain lacks code for dealing with hard diskpartitioning, and avoids infecting hard disks by checking the most significant bit of the BIOS drive number being accessed. Brain does not infect the disk if the bit is set, unlike other viruses at the time, which paid no attention to disk partitioning and consequently destroyed data stored on hard disks by treating them in the same way as floppy disks. Brain often went undetected, partially due to this deliberate non-destructiveness, especially when the user paid little to no attention to the low speed of floppy disk access.
The virus came complete with address and three phone numbers, and a message that told the user that their machine was infected and to call them for inoculation:
BLOCK ALLAMA IQBAL TOWN LAHORE-PAKISTAN PHONE: 430791,443248,280530. Beware of this VIRUS.... Contact us for vaccination...
This program was originally used to track a heart monitoring program for the IBM PC, and people were distributing illicit copies of the disks. This tracking program was supposed to stop and track illegal copies of the disk, however the program also sometimes used the last five kilobytes on an Apple floppy, making additional saves to the disk by other programs impossible.
Author responseedit
When the brothers began to receive a large number of phone calls from people in the United Kingdom, the United States, and elsewhere, demanding that they disinfect their machines, they were stunned and tried to explain to the outraged callers that their motivation had not been malicious. Their phone lines were overloaded. The brothers, with another brother, Shahid Farooq Alvi, continued business in Pakistan, as Brain NET Internet service providers with a company called Brain Telecommunication Limited.
In 2011, 25 years after Brain was released, Mikko Hyppönen of F-Secure traveled to Pakistan to interview Amjad for a documentary.[3][4] Being inspired by this documentary and its widespread popularity, a group of Pakistani bloggers interviewed Amjad, under the banner of Bloggerine.[5]
Pakistani Brain (IBM MS-DOS PC Computer Virus) and its impact
January 01, 1970
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Brain virus redirects here For viruses that affect the central nervous system see Central nervous system viral disease Brain is the industry standard name for a computer virus that was released in its first form on 19 January 1986 1 and is considered to be the first computer virus for the IBM Personal Computer IBM PC and compatibles BrainThe boot sector of an infected floppyOther namesAshar older variant Original author s Amjad Farooq AlviInitial release19 January 1986PlatformIBM Personal Computer IBM PC compatiblesTypeBoot sector computer virus Contents 1 Description 2 Author response 3 See also 4 References 5 External linksDescription editBrain affects the PC by replacing the boot sector of a floppy disk with a copy of the virus The real boot sector is moved to another sector and marked as bad Infected disks usually have five kilobytes of bad sectors The disk label is usually changed to c Brain and the following text can be seen in infected boot sectors Welcome to the Dungeon c 1986 Amjads pvt Ltd VIRUS SHOE RECORD V9 0 Dedicated to the dynamic memories of millions of viruses who are no longer with us today Thanks GOODNESS BEWARE OF THE er VIRUS this program is catching program follows after these There are many minor and major variations to that version of the text The virus slows down the floppy disk drive and makes seven kilobytes of memory unavailable to DOS Brain was written by Amjad Farooq Alvi who at the time lived in Chah Miran near Lahore Railway Station in Lahore Pakistan The Alvi brothers told Time magazine they had written it to protect their medical software from illegal copying and it was supposed to target copyright infringement only 2 The cryptic message Welcome to the Dungeon a safeguard and reference to an early programming forum on Dungeon BBS appeared after a year because the brothers licensed a beta version of the code The brothers could not be contacted to receive the final release of this version of the program Brain lacks code for dealing with hard disk partitioning and avoids infecting hard disks by checking the most significant bit of the BIOS drive number being accessed Brain does not infect the disk if the bit is set unlike other viruses at the time which paid no attention to disk partitioning and consequently destroyed data stored on hard disks by treating them in the same way as floppy disks Brain often went undetected partially due to this deliberate non destructiveness especially when the user paid little to no attention to the low speed of floppy disk access The virus came complete with address and three phone numbers and a message that told the user that their machine was infected and to call them for inoculation Welcome to the Dungeon c 1986 Amjads pvt BRAIN COMPUTER SERVICES 730 NIZAM BLOCK ALLAMA IQBAL TOWN LAHORE PAKISTAN PHONE 430791 443248 280530 Beware of this VIRUS Contact us for vaccination This program was originally used to track a heart monitoring program for the IBM PC and people were distributing illicit copies of the disks This tracking program was supposed to stop and track illegal copies of the disk however the program also sometimes used the last five kilobytes on an Apple floppy making additional saves to the disk by other programs impossible Author response editWhen the brothers began to receive a large number of phone calls from people in the United Kingdom the United States and elsewhere demanding that they disinfect their machines they were stunned and tried to explain to the outraged callers that their motivation had not been malicious Their phone lines were overloaded The brothers with another brother Shahid Farooq Alvi continued business in Pakistan as Brain NET Internet service providers with a company called Brain Telecommunication Limited In 2011 25 years after Brain was released Mikko Hypponen of F Secure traveled to Pakistan to interview Amjad for a documentary 3 4 Being inspired by this documentary and its widespread popularity a group of Pakistani bloggers interviewed Amjad under the banner of Bloggerine 5 See also edit nbsp Pakistan portal Rootkit Timeline of computer viruses and wormsReferences edit Leyden John January 19 2006 PC virus celebrates 20th birthday The Register Retrieved March 21 2011 Elmer Dewitt Philip Munro Ross H September 26 1988 Technology You Must Be Punished Time Archived from the original on December 14 2008 Acohido Brian March 8 2011 Documentary examines the inception of PC viruses 25 years ago USA Today Retrieved March 9 2011 Searching for the first PC virus in Pakistan F Secure Archived from the original on March 16 2011 Retrieved March 21 2011 To The Roots Of PC Virus Bloggerine March 2014 External links edit BrainNET website Archived from the original on 2005 02 04 Retrieved 2004 05 01 Description of c Brain at F Secure site Brain Searching for the first PC virus in Pakistan on YouTube Information on the Brain Virus And Variants at textfiles com TED talk by Mikko Hypponen Fighting viruses defending the net Pakistani Brain IBM MS DOS PC Computer Virus and its impact Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Brain computer virus amp oldid 1221292148, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,
