No smartass replies I’m serious I need to know I’m doing a paper.
One computer peed in another computer’s butt without protection. Sorry for being explicit.
How did internet viruses spread before the internet was invented!
Submitted 2 weeks ago by gigastasio@sh.itjust.works to [deleted]
Comments
thesohoriots@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
unknowablenight@piefed.social 2 weeks ago
What is the internet even about anymore 😭😭😭
twinnie@feddit.uk 2 weeks ago
It was a weird time to like computers. Nobody had an antivirus, and if they didn’t it never got updated. You’d just take floppy disks around to your friend’s house and plug them in. Windows gave everything admin rights.
To be honest, I was using a computer for about five years before the internet happened and I never got a virus.
db2@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Windows gave everything admin rights
To be more clear, until NT Windows didn’t even have that concept. XP/2000 was probably the first Windows to even pretend to do anything like that. 95/98/ME had a password at login and you could literally just hit escape to not do that and that was Microsoft security. I don’t think 3.x even did that much.
DmMacniel@feddit.org 2 weeks ago
Indeed. The home/consumer line of Windows (9x) hadn’t that requirement or even the capability of joining domains (thus only local accounts if at any). Windows NT started branching off 3.0 though, so quite early on with NT 3.1 which coincided with Windows 3.11 for workgroups.
EvilFonzy@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Simple. The Internet wasn’t invented, it was discovered. ‘Viruses’ have been aware of its existence from the beginning of time even though we so-called ‘humans’ weren’t. Source: You can trust me, dawg.
Kolanaki@pawb.social 2 weeks ago
They didn’t as they didn’t exist yet.
gigastasio@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
Aw man
sem@piefed.blahaj.zone 2 weeks ago
Before there was internet, you had yo bring your computer to another house. Sometimes other people brought theirs too, so you could play games.
With all those modems talking and making noises in the same room, if one of them was coughing or had a virus, it would easily spread to all the others.
A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
You would get a floppy disk that had a virus buried in it in addition to the game/software.
It’d infect your computer, then embed itself on every floppy you’d make, some of which you’d inevitably trade with friends or whatever, thus infecting all their systems, so all floppies they’d write were infected, and they’d eventually trade with others, and so on and so on and so on.
Corporal_Punishment@feddit.uk 2 weeks ago
First thing you need to realise, the internet has been around in one form or another for decades.
The internet as we know it has been around for over 30 years.
However, before widespread adoption of the internet, viruses were spread either by BBS services or via disk.
As a young Acorn achimedes user in the late 80s and early 90s I would obtain floppy disks with games on from friends, they would have obtained them from other friends who either downloaded them via BBS or bought them from a dodgy market stall. You could also buy them from magazine advertisements (I once bought a few floppy disks with porn on them).
There was always a risk that one of these disks had a virus on. For me it wasnt an issue. The Acorn used ROM to store the operating system and all your other files were kept on disks. We couldn’t afford a hard drive so we were immune, however I did once have a disk that had a virus called Marburg on it according to our virus killer at the time.
ImNotThatPokable@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Was the porn floppy 8, 5 or 3 inches?
kn33@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
daannii@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Pop ups.
Yeah it was mostly pop ups and occasionally links in emails.
Pop ups with porn were especially used for this because men are dumb and will click on titties.
People used to share the viruses because the virus would lock their computer and say something like “you must email this to 10 people to get back access”. Or something like that. I forget exactly but that used to be a thing.
Your own family and friends would send you viruses.
phar@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
I don’t know but they sure are itchy
Retro_unlimited@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Sony had a root kit on their music CDs. 💿
fluffykittycat@slrpnk.net 2 weeks ago
Floppy disks
DmMacniel@feddit.org 2 weeks ago
Take a look at the SCA-Virus.
And regarding viruses spreading before the internet: there were BBS where you could upload and download files and if one of those files were infected and someone else downloaded it… Well you get the idea.
ieatpwns@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
I’m not computer historian but I’m thinking storage media like 5 inch floppies or 3.5 inch floppies or magnetic tape
Lumidaub@feddit.org 2 weeks ago
People used to go outside their houses and shake hands or even hug. Any storage media they had in their pockets could infect each other in this type of close contact.
gigastasio@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
Finally a serious answer. Can I use you as a source?
Lumidaub@feddit.org 2 weeks ago
Please do.