{ "id": "a9e6b3ea-34ef-42f6-a8b9-d0c43f84b99f", "created_at": "2026-04-06T00:20:01.823486Z", "updated_at": "2026-04-10T03:19:59.353017Z", "deleted_at": null, "sha1_hash": "2b47e57dee7dbe54315a9489b39fa0375bf80466", "title": "Flashback Wednesday: Pakistani Brain", "llm_title": "", "authors": "", "file_creation_date": "0001-01-01T00:00:00Z", "file_modification_date": "0001-01-01T00:00:00Z", "file_size": 40426, "plain_text": "Flashback Wednesday: Pakistani Brain\r\nBy Editor\r\nArchived: 2026-04-05 21:58:30 UTC\r\nThis month’s Flashback Wednesday takes us back to the beginning. Pakistani Brain, discovered on January 19th,\r\nis considered to be the first-ever PC virus.\r\n18 Jan 2017  •  , 3 min. read\r\nIn the early 1980s, with computer technology in its relative infancy and worldwide internet access a distant dream,\r\nthe idea that computers sitting benign and beige on work desks could become infected with a virus was still, by\r\nand large, the stuff of science fiction.\r\nWhilst there had been early versions of what we’d now term a virus, for example, Elk Cloner, written for Apple in\r\n1981, they weren’t the kind of malicious constructs with which we are now all-too-familiar.\r\nIt was against this background that users who had purchased software developed by a Pakistan-based company\r\ninnocently inserted now archaic floppy disks containing medical software into their PCs, but found they had\r\ninstalled more than they bargained for. And what happened on January 19th, 1986, changed the world of\r\ncomputing forever.\r\nA new attack\r\nThe software, which quietly installed itself onto diskettes, was developed by two brothers Basit and Amjad Farooq\r\nAlvi from Lahore (while this is accepted wisdom, other experts have questioned this). This boot sector virus is\r\ngenerally now regarded as the first PC virus, named Brain after the company the brothers ran (and indeed still\r\nrun).\r\nMotivation\r\nBut what made these software developers want to create something like this? Surprisingly, it was protection rather\r\nthan attack that was foremost on their mind when developing the program (although, as some researchers argue, it\r\ndoesn't really act as a software protection scheme).\r\nWorried that their software was being unfairly/immorally copied, they wrote a program that they hoped would\r\nsecure their software. Ironically, in trying to protect themselves – as the brothers claim – they unwittingly attacked\r\nthe PCs of others. Again, it's important to note that this is the story put forward by the Alvi brothers - it could\r\neasily have been retaliatory, to punish software pirates.\r\nExperimentation\r\nSpeaking in a documentary in 2011, Amjad Farooq Alvi explained that the idea also came about due to intellectual\r\ncuriosity. “We were experimenting with a few things. One thing was whether in DOS we can have multitasking,”\r\nhttps://www.welivesecurity.com/2017/01/18/flashback-wednesday-pakistani-brain/\r\nPage 1 of 3\n\nhe said.\r\nThey were also interested in exploring the security of the then-new operating system. “The DOS was something\r\nnew and when we explored the security issues of DOS [we] realized it was possible [to infiltrate] it with a piece of\r\ncode.”\r\nFinally, the brothers were interested in seeing how widely their software was being used. “[We wanted] to find out\r\nhow the floppies and how the programs and software move around,” explained Alvi. “We [could] see and watch\r\nwhether it’s going to spread around the world or remain within a certain group of people.”\r\nA runaway success\r\nUnfortunately, the software written by the brothers ended up being rather too successful. The virus spread – to\r\nother floppies – and many users, worried by the message that popped up on their screens, contacted the brothers -\r\nthey had, after all, included their contact details in the display message.\r\nInfluential\r\nLike many clever concepts, the ideas behind the software were eagerly gobbled up by those looking to enhance –\r\nand show off – their computing skills. Copycat viruses were developed, but initially, these were not intended to be\r\nmalicious.\r\nIt would not be until the turn of the 21st century that the criminalization of malware really began to take shape\r\n(here's an interesting paper from 2012, by ESET's Aryeh Goretsky, that looks back at the early days of computer\r\nviruses and contextualizes them with today's threats).\r\nInevitable\r\nWith the concept of a computer virus proposed as early as the 1940s, it is likely that without Brain and its\r\npredecessors, viruses would have sprung forth regardless, from a different source. So whilst the infiltration of\r\nDOS was big news in many ways, the virus was simply a step in an inevitable process.\r\nA new world\r\nComputer viruses as we know them today flourish via the internet, which enabled viruses to spread more subtly\r\nwithout the insertion of a disk or other external devices. But back in the 1980s, Brain gave us a glimpse into a\r\nworld full of possibilities, both exciting and rather more sinister.\r\nLet us keep you\r\nup to date\r\nSign up for our newsletters\r\nhttps://www.welivesecurity.com/2017/01/18/flashback-wednesday-pakistani-brain/\r\nPage 2 of 3\n\nSource: https://www.welivesecurity.com/2017/01/18/flashback-wednesday-pakistani-brain/\r\nhttps://www.welivesecurity.com/2017/01/18/flashback-wednesday-pakistani-brain/\r\nPage 3 of 3", "extraction_quality": 1, "language": "EN", "sources": [ "Malpedia" ], "references": [ "https://www.welivesecurity.com/2017/01/18/flashback-wednesday-pakistani-brain/" ], "report_names": [ "flashback-wednesday-pakistani-brain" ], "threat_actors": [], "ts_created_at": 1775434801, "ts_updated_at": 1775791199, "ts_creation_date": 0, "ts_modification_date": 0, "files": { "pdf": "https://archive.orkl.eu/2b47e57dee7dbe54315a9489b39fa0375bf80466.pdf", "text": "https://archive.orkl.eu/2b47e57dee7dbe54315a9489b39fa0375bf80466.txt", "img": "https://archive.orkl.eu/2b47e57dee7dbe54315a9489b39fa0375bf80466.jpg" } }