How did Elk Cloner get started?
Elk Cloner is one of the first computer viruses. It is spread through external communication. This means that it is transferred from outside the computer lab for which it was written. This virus was created by a fifteen year old high school student. The transference of infection is through disks. When a disk is copied and inserted the virus enters the desktop. It is highly contagious and can infect as many computers, which can insert disks. Hence today it is known as the boot sector virus. When ever a disk is placed into a computer it boots. As this is done it is copied to the memory of the computer providing a path for infection. A poem which was written by the inventor is displayed on the screen. This is symptomatic of the infection.
