Brain infected the boot sector of 360 KB floppies and displayed a copyright message from its authors, Basit and Amjad Farooq Alvi. It launched the antivirus industry, boot-sector scanning, and decades of copy-protection versus malwareMalicious software — viruses, worms, trojans, and ransomware designed to harm systems or steal data. debates — the PCPersonal computer — a computer designed for individual use, especially desktop or laptop machines. equivalent of what Morris would do to UnixAn influential multitasking OS from the 1970s — files, pipes, and C shaped Linux, macOS, and BSD. networks two years later.

Brain is the canonical first IBMInternational Business Machines — a major computer and enterprise technology company since the early 20th century. PCPersonal computer — a computer designed for individual use, especially desktop or laptop machines. virus developers cite in security history.

It proved removable media could propagate malicious code across the growing PCPersonal computer — a computer designed for individual use, especially desktop or laptop machines. installed base.