While the Morris worm was one of the biggest main stream virus, there were other viruses made around it’s time. Each one made their own impact in their own way. After all, I listed off a handful of viruses made around the time the Morris worm was around.

Out of them all, the Brain computer virus is likely the most important one. After all the term “Brain” is the industry standard name for any computer virus released in its first form in the late 1980s.

The original Brain computer virus was considered to be the first computer virus of its time. The virus targeted the boot sector of storage media, infecting it and replacing the boot sector with this virus.

In other words if you inserted a floppy disk that was infected  with the virus, you would receive a message instead. The message read:

Welcome to the Dungeon (c) 1986 Amjads (pvt) Ltd VIRUS_SHOE RECORD V9.0 Dedicated to the dynamic memories of millions of viruses who are no longer with us today - Thanks GOODNESS!!! BEWARE OF THE er..VIRUS : this program is catching program follows after these messages….$#@%$@!!

There are various versions of this message but the virus always slowed the floppy disk. It also makes seven kilobytes of its memory unavailable, a pretty small amount for floppy disk standards. A floppy disk back then had 1.44 megabytes - or 1440 kilobytes - of storage space.

Similar to the Morris worm, the brain was made by a man with diffferent intentions than what it did. Created by Amjad Farooq Alvi, he lived in Lahore, Pakistan when he made Brain. According to TIME magazine, he had written Brain in order to protect medical software for privacy.

The idea for Brain was to target copyright infringement only and to stop it. Instead it became the virus we know today.

But the Brain virus is a pretty unique one. Compared to the Morris worm and the other viruses made around this time, Brain didn’t hop from infected floppy disk to another one. Brain had cryptic message - like the Welcome to the Dungeon bit which referenced a programming forum back then - but lacked the code for dealing with hard disk partitioning. It also avoids infecting hard disks by checking the bit of the disk inserted. If it’s clear, it doesn’t infect.

That’s unique because the other viruses at the time didn’t have that level of intelligence. For example the Morris worm did check to see if a floppy disk was infected, but it would infect the disk again regardless.

Because of Brain’s behaviour, this virus often went undetected and people wouldn’t pay much attention to the floppy disk having low loading speed.

Still, the Brain became noticeable because amongst those infected, the virus also included a phone number in order for Amjad to be contacted. After a while, Amjad and his brother working with him - I sadly don’t have his name - were swamped with angry phone calls from people who want the virus removed.

Amjad explained to them his intentions weren’t malicious and helped to reverse the virus. After that, the virus ceased to be.

Though one of the brothers decided to keep an homage to the virus in an unusual way. Shahid Farooq Alvi created two business: Brain NET, an internet service provider, and Brain Telecommunication Limited.

Despite the bit of damage Brain did, these two businesses are still operational in Pakistan.