Prior to 1988, most viruses were mere annoyances and virtually harmless. In January of 1986, the first virus written for Windows based PCs was born. Known simply as “Brain,” it was written by two brothers, Basit and Amjad Farooq Alvi, who were only 17 and 24 years old at the time.

Who made the first computer virus?

As noted by Discovery, the Creeper program, often regarded as the first virus, was created in 1971 by Bob Thomas of BBN.

How did computer viruses start?

The computer virus seems to have spawned into existence in the 1990's when users started hopping online with AOL. ... The virus was written in 1981 by Richard Skrenta, attaching to the Apple DOS 3.3 OS via floppy disk. Skrenta wrote this virus while still in high school.