History of malware

The 20th birthday of the first officially announced virus has just passed. Many other "milestones" in the development of viruses, worms and Trojans are contained in the following summary.


The G DATA AntiVirusLab experts publish at irregular intervals their whitepapers. These whitepapers are dealing with themes about the malware sector. Take your benefit of our knowlege.

Malware categories

When we talk about viruses, worms and Trojan horses, we generally mean software that has a damaging effect. The generally accepted generic term for this is "malware" (from "malicious" + "software") in German as well as English.