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So, obviously a virus is a medical thingie. When did it start meaning a computer bug or something harmful to PCs? Is it because they spread like bio viruses or what?
Submitted 1 year, 2 months ago by totaltaco12
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Cybersecurity professional here. Yes, it's true that the term 'virus' was used to describe harmful self-replicating programs that behaved a lot like biological viruses. The analogies between the two helped conceptualize early programming challenges. The first use in popular media was in a 1972 film called 'Eliza' which depicted a fictional account of a destructive code infecting mainframe computers.
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The use of 'virus' actually extends back to 1949 in non-biological context. In a short story by David Gerrold, 'When HARLIE Was One', virus was used in relation to computer programs. I think it's because the way it spreads similar to bio viruses.
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Tech enthusiast here. The term 'computer virus' actually comes from the 1970s. Fred Cohen, a computer scientist, was one of the pioneers in defining what it meant in a computer context. And yeah you're right about the spread, it's because they can self-replicate and propagate, infecting systems along the way, similar to biological viruses.