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127:. When an uninfected disk was inserted into the computer, the entire DOS (including Elk Cloner) would be copied to the disk, allowing it to spread from disk to disk. To prevent the DOS from being continually rewritten each time the disk was accessed, Elk Cloner also wrote a signature byte to the disk's directory, indicating that it had already been infected.
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Elk Cloner was created by
Skrenta as a prank in 1982. Skrenta already had a reputation for pranks among his friends. In sharing computer games and software, he would often alter the floppy disks to shut down or display taunting on-screen messages. Due to this reputation, many of his friends simply
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or cleaners available. The virus could be removed using Apple's MASTER CREATE utility or other utilities to rewrite a fresh copy of DOS to the infected disk. Furthermore, once Elk Cloner was removed, the previously infected disk would not be reinfected since it already contained the Elk Cloner
284:"signature" in its directory. It was also possible to "inoculate" uninfected disks against Elk Cloner by writing the "signature" to the disk; the virus would then think the disk was already infected and refrain from writing itself.
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ELK CLONER: THE PROGRAM WITH A PERSONALITY IT WILL GET ON ALL YOUR DISKS IT WILL INFILTRATE YOUR CHIPS YES IT'S CLONER! IT WILL STICK TO YOU LIKE GLUE IT WILL MODIFY RAM TOO SEND IN THE CLONER!
111:. It was attached to a game which was then set to play. The 50th time the game was started, the virus was released, but instead of playing the game, it would change to a blank screen that displayed a
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virus, and began circulating it in early 1982 among high school friends and a local computer club. Twenty-five years later, in 2007, Skrenta called it "some dumb little practical joke."
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stopped accepting floppy disks from him. Skrenta thought of methods to alter floppy disks without physically touching or harming them. During a winter break from
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According to contemporary reports, the virus was rather contagious, successfully infecting the floppies of most people
Skrenta knew, and upsetting many of them.
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that spread "in the wild", i.e., outside the computer system or laboratory in which it was written. It attached itself to the
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Part of the "success" was that people were not at all wary of the potential problem, nor were
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as a 15-year-old high school student, originally as a joke, and put onto a game disk.
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and spread by floppy disk. It was written around 1982 by programmer and entrepreneur
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442:"Home - Broadcom Community - Discussion Forums, Technical Docs, and Expert Blogs"
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disks without a standard image had their reserved tracks overwritten.
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The poem that Elk Cloner would display was as follows:
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123:, a copy of the virus was placed in the computer's
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107:operating system using a technique now known as a
301:"Prank starts 25 years of computer security woes"
343:"Top 10 Computer Viruses: No. 10 - Elk Cloner"
162:computer. He developed what is now known as a
137:Elk Cloner did not cause deliberate harm, but
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363:"List of Computer Viruses Developed in 1980s"
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383:"First virus hatched as a practical joke"
264:Learn how and when to remove this message
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202:adding citations to reliable sources
402:Salon.com Retrieved April 12, 2013.
103:Elk Cloner spread by infecting the
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311:from the original on 2008-01-07.
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189:needs additional citations for
115:about the virus. If a computer
61:Mt. Lebanon, Pennsylvania, U.S.
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400:The computer virus turns 25
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80:is one of the first known
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387:The Sydney Morning Herald
156:Mt. Lebanon, Pennsylvania
482:Elk Cloner (circa 1982)
152:Mt. Lebanon High School
697:Public-domain software
446:community.broadcom.com
99:Infection and symptoms
82:microcomputer viruses
692:Hacking in the 1980s
687:1982 in Pennsylvania
517:Hacking in the 1980s
307:. Associated Press.
198:improve this article
601:Christmas Tree EXEC
16:Microcomputer virus
626:Lamer Exterminator
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119:from an infected
109:boot sector virus
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682:Computer viruses
611:Father Christmas
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528:← —
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52:Computer virus
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48:Classification
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209:Find sources:
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187:This section
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105:Apple DOS 3.3
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463:. Retrieved
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421:the original
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326:. Retrieved
323:"Elk Cloner"
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254:January 2017
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213:"Elk Cloner"
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196:Please help
191:verification
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170:Distribution
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93:Rich Skrenta
77:
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70:Rich Skrenta
631:Morris worm
591:Byte Bandit
563:Markus Hess
550:Individuals
164:boot sector
145:Development
121:floppy disk
41:Boot sector
676:Categories
606:Elk Cloner
465:2015-03-22
427:2021-03-02
368:2010-12-10
348:2010-12-10
328:2010-12-10
288:References
224:newspapers
78:Elk Cloner
22:Elk Cloner
661:WANK Worm
636:Ping-Pong
621:Jerusalem
616:Ghostball
139:Apple DOS
532:Timeline
309:Archived
160:Apple II
86:Apple II
31:Apple II
596:Cascade
573:Malware
238:scholar
66:Authors
37:Subtype
656:Virdem
651:Stoned
646:Scores
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125:memory
117:booted
58:Origin
586:Brain
537:1990s
245:JSTOR
231:books
43:virus
581:1260
417:CNET
217:news
113:poem
27:Type
641:SCA
305:CTV
200:by
154:in
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