It wasn't until the year 1983 that the word 'virus' would be used in terms of computing. However, it was ten years before that In 1971 when the first computer virus is considered to have been created. This timeline of the worst computer viruses in history from the team at hp.com shows a virus called 'The Creeper' at the top of the list. A programmer named Robert Thomas created his program to move through different computers connected together by a network. His program did not harm any systems but just popped up a message that read, “I’m the creeper: catch me if you can.” The first three viruses on this timeline did nothing more than maybe slow the computer down a bit but in 1988 the Morris Worm virus was the first to cause significant damage ranging from 10 thousand to 10 million dollars. The latest virus on the list was stopped by a 22-year-old security researcher but not before it caused more than 4 billion in estimated damages.
Infographic by: hp
