Although the roots of the computer virus date back as early as 1949, when the Hungarian scientist John von Neumann published the "Theory of self - reproducing automata '', the first known computer virus appeared in 1971 and was dubbed the "Creeper virus ''. This computer virus infected Digital Equipment Corporation 's (DEC) PDP - 10 mainframe computers running the TENEX operating system.
when was the name of the first malicious software detected on a pc
the "Creeper virus ''