Antivirus Software

Antivirus software, also called anti-malware, is software built to prevent, detect and remove malicious software, originally aimed at computer viruses but now covering a broader range of threats including malicious links, spam and phishing attempts. Ray Tomlinson wrote a program called the Reaper in 1971 to remove the Creeper virus infecting Digital Equipment Corporation's PDP-10 mainframes, an early removal tool that was itself technically a virus, leaving its status as the first true antivirus program disputed; the German programmer Bernd Fix is credited with the first clearly documented removal of a virus found in the wild when he eliminated the Vienna virus in 1987. Commercial antivirus development followed quickly afterward with no single agreed founder: John McAfee released VirusScan in late 1987, Andreas Luning and Kai Figge released G Data's first antivirus product for the Atari ST the same year, and the British company Sophos, founded in 1985, also entered the market during this period.