An incident in 1986. Around the world, people's personal computers suddenly had an ominous phrase: Welcome to the Dungeon. It means - welcome to the underground darkness. This message was actually a computer virus. The name is Brain. This virus is believed to be the first personal computer virus.
This brain virus was born in a shop in Lahore, Pakistan. But spread all over the world. Two Pakistani brothers - Amjad Farooq Alvi and Basit Alvi - were involved in its birth. The virus is named after their company, Brain Computer Services.
Amjad Farooq Alvi said that all three of his brothers were very enthusiastic about computers. He said that he became interested in computers while growing up as a child. “My father made us members of the British Council Library while still in school. Often I used to skip school and go to this library. I read all the books on electronics and computers there,” he said. Running away from school and reading such books eventually worked out well for him. He holds degrees in Mathematics and Physics. Later he and his brother established their company in a shop in Lahore.
Start of Computer Shop Brain
They started this business around 1983. Their job was to service a British brand of small computers in Pakistan. The name of this computer is Sinclair. It was created by Sir Clive Sinclair.
He said, “We were the only service provider of this small home computer in Pakistan. Within a few days, sales of IBM PC Competables began."
Computer manufacturer IBM, originally known as an electronics company, once beat all Japanese companies in the computer business. Amjad and his brother then started servicing and selling these IBM computers.
After that, the business of the two brothers began to expand. But Amjad was still addicted to playing with computer coding. “At that time I read an article on how to run two programs simultaneously. One program will run forward and the other program will run backwards,” he said.
How the virus begins to grow
Amjad thought the program might surprise people. Then he thought of creating such a program.
He said, “I felt that if someone had been working on a program for a long time, for a break in his work, or to entertain him, a program running in the background would suddenly come forward and tell him a story or from a book. Can recite something.”
Amjad then proceeded to develop such a program. Once his friends noticed that while doing hard work on the computer, different stories and words suddenly appeared on their screen. They were all surprised to see this.
“Then we started working on how to hide it. so that no one can see it. We created a code and at some point got tired and bored,” said Amjad Farooq Alvi.
Amjad and his brother Basit then developed this software and started selling it. Their business was doing very well. “I got an order from a doctor friend of ours. While discussing the price and cost he said that their budget is very limited. So he asked to make this software at a very low cost.”
“I said okay. But we will own this code and you cannot sell it anywhere. Can't give it to anyone. We were not very good at writing any contracts regarding this. At that time there was no cyber law in Pakistan. We also had no idea how to secure the code,” he said.
So they warned their doctor friend not to copy the code they created. He said, “If you copy it, it will spread. The friend agreed.
Suddenly call from America
Their warning was very clear. But after that one day suddenly something happened. He was working late that day. “I work about 18 hours a day. That day I left the chair to sleep and lay on the mattress. Around midnight, probably three or four in the morning, a call came. After picking up the receiver, I heard a woman on the other side speaking in English. He asked - is it a brain computer. I said yes, what can I do for you?”
“He said he was having a problem with his computer and was told to contact us. I asked where are you calling from. He said from a university in Florida, USA. I can't remember the name of that university now."
Amjad said, “He was writing an article for his department's newsletter but suddenly there was a problem with the computer. So he can't save his file. Then I thought – oh my God, maybe a virus has got into his computer.”
"I asked if he changed any floppy? He said I don't understand any of this, you just tell me how I can get rid of it. I need to save the text. I asked where he got my phone number. He said one of his colleagues found my name and contact number inside the floppy,” said Amjad Farooq Alvi.
Amjad warned his doctor friend not to copy the code he created for him. But Amjad then realized that it had been copied anyway. Because this code has spread to different computers around the world. And a message is popping up on those computer screens.
The terrible message
The message read: “Welcome to the dungeon. Welcome to the underground darkness. Copyright- 1986. Baset & Amjad's Brain Computer Services. Seven Three Zero..Lahore, Pakistan. After that a phone number - four three zero...Beware of viruses. Contact us for a remedy.”
It turned out that the brain virus created by them has spread to the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, China, and Singapore.
Amjad Farooq Alvi knew his brain virus was harmless. But not everyone saw the virus that way. In 1988, Time magazine described the virus as dangerous.
“It was not true. This virus or code is not designed to damage or steal anything,” he said.
On the one hand, it was the first personal computer virus, and it was also the first time that someone was contacted about a virus. It's unusual. Because those who create viruses never want anyone to identify them.
After this incident, the two brothers Amjad and Basit continued to work on their brain computer which later became a major telecommunication company in Pakistan.
Amjad Farooq Alvi said, “By God's grace we three are still here. We enjoy our work very much. We have very little income. But the joy I get from working cannot be overstated. This virus is a very small, very small incident in our entire career."
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