You’ve heard the term “computer virus” a thousand times. Maybe you got a pop-up warning, or perhaps a friend panicked when their laptop slowed to a crawl. But what exactly is a computer virus, and how does this digital infection manage to wreck so much havoc? Let’s break down this pesky digital pest. The Digital […]

In November 1983 he used “virus” to describe self-replicating computer programs. In 1984 Cohen uses the phrase “computer virus” – as suggested by his teacher Leonard Adleman – to describe the operation of such programs in terms of “infection”. He defines a “virus” as “a program that can ‘infect’ other programs by modifying them to […]