The First PC Virus

History buffs just got a goosebump-y rewind: the first big personal-computer infection, the 1986 “Brain,” is back in the spotlight. It popped up with a creepy greeting — “Welcome to the dungeon” — and, according to co-creator Amjad Farooq Alvi, started as an accidental experiment in a Lahore shop before racing around the world and into headlines. A new Witness History episode retells it through eye-witness memories.

The comment section’s vibe? Homework before hot takes. The top move is a single, confident nudge to security legend Mikko Hyppönen’s deep-dive, billed as essential viewing: this talk. From there, the wider chatter reliably splits. One side rolls its eyes at the word “accidental,” arguing that seeding code onto strangers’ machines — prank or not — lit the fuse for decades of digital chaos. Others defend it as clumsy copy-protection from a more innocent era, a historical quirk rather than mustache-twirling villainy. Nostalgia floods in either way: floppy disk war stories, tales of boot-sector scares, and memes riffing on that famous dungeon greeting. Verdict: the story still hits a nerve — half spooky campfire tale, half origin myth — and everyone’s racing to watch the video and relive the moment where computer trouble learned to travel.