Antivirus software

Antivirus software emerged as an immune response to an ecosystem suddenly vulnerable to digital parasites. When personal computers spread through homes and offices in the mid-1980s, they created dense networks of potential hosts—and the viruses that had been theoretical curiosities became real threats. The year 1987 saw antivirus solutions appear simultaneously across three continents, a textbook case of convergent evolution driven by identical selective pressures.

The adjacent possible had opened through the very success of personal computing. The Brain virus, created in 1986 by Pakistani brothers Basit and Amjad Alvi, demonstrated that malicious code could spread through floppy disk sharing—the sneakernet that connected isolated machines. Estimates suggested 100,000 infected computers. The Vienna virus followed, corrupting .COM files on DOS systems. Suddenly, the convenience of software sharing carried hidden dangers.

In Germany, Bernd Fix produced the first documented in-the-wild virus removal in early 1987, neutralizing the Vienna virus. His approach was surgical: identify the virus's signature patterns, write code to detect and remove them. Around the same time, G Data Software—founded in 1985 by Andreas Lüning and Kai Figge—released antivirus software for the Atari ST platform, demonstrating that protection could be packaged as a commercial product.

In the United States, John McAfee recognized both the threat and the opportunity. Working from his home in Santa Clara, California, McAfee created VirusScan specifically to combat the Brain virus. His distribution model proved as innovative as his software: VirusScan was freely available on bulletin board systems, with users encouraged to pay for support and updates. This 'shareware' approach established the business model that would dominate consumer security software.

In Czechoslovakia, behind the Iron Curtain where Western commercial software was unavailable, Peter Paško, Rudolf Hrubý, and Miroslav Trnka created the first version of NOD antivirus—later evolving into ESET, which remains a major security vendor in 2026.

Fred Cohen's 1987 theoretical work proved that perfect virus detection was computationally impossible—no algorithm could identify all possible malicious code. This fundamental limit shaped the industry's approach: signature-based detection for known threats, heuristics for suspicious behavior, and continuous updates as new viruses emerged. The arms race between virus writers and security researchers began.

Path dependence established McAfee as the American standard, G Data in Germany, and regional players worldwide. The industry consolidated as computing became networked: Symantec acquired Norton in 1990, McAfee merged with Network Associates. By 2026, antivirus had evolved into comprehensive endpoint security, but the core insight remained from 1987—digital ecosystems need immune systems.