First recorded virus on any Mac OS?

[Docere Suess]

I am having a dispute with a friend, what is the very first virus on any Mac. I mean even the smallest virus counts here. I am trying to tell him Mac's have had types of viruses for a while.

What's the first virus on any Mac computer?

[Subra]

Mac virus timeline
1982: 15-year-old student Rich Skrenta wrote the Elk Cloner virus, capable of infecting the boot sector of Apple II computers, predating viruses for IBM PCs by some years.

1987: The nVIR virus began to infect Macs, spreading mainly by floppy disk. Source code was later made available, causing a rash of variants.

1988: HyperCard viruses emerged that could run on versions of Apple's Mac OS 9. One version showed the message "Dukakis for President" before self-destructing.

1990: The MDEF virus (aka Garfield) emerged, infecting application and system files on the Mac.

1995: Microsoft accidentally shipped the first ever Word macro virus, Concept, on CD ROM. It infected both Macs and PCs. Thousands of macro viruses followed, many affecting Microsoft Office for Mac.

1996: Laroux, the first Excel virus, was released. Mac users were unaffected until the release of Excel 98 meant Macs could become infected.

1998: Sevendust, also known as 666, infected applications on Apple Mac computers.

2004: The Renepo script worm attempted to disable Mac OS X security, downloaded hacking tools to affected computers, and gave criminals admin rights to the Apple Macintosh. Hackers also wrote a proof-of-concept program called Amphimix which demonstrated how executable code could be disguised as an MP3 music file on an Apple Mac.

2006: Leap-A, the first ever virus for Mac OS X was discovered. Leap-A can spread via iChat. The Inqtana worm and proof-of-concept virus soon followed.

2007: Sophos discovered an OpenOffice multi-platform macro worm capable of running on Windows, Linux and Mac computers. The BadBunny worm dropped Ruby script viruses on Mac OS X systems, and displayed an indecent JPEG image of a man wearing a rabbit costume. Sophos reported the first financial malware for Mac. The gang developed both Windows and Mac versions of their malware.

2008: Cybercriminals targeted Mac and PC users in equal measure, by planting poisoned adverts on TV-related websites. If accessed via an Apple Mac, surfers would be attacked by a piece of Macintosh scareware called MacSweeper. In June, the OSX/Hovdy-A Trojan horse was discovered that could steal passwords from Mac OS X users, open the firewall to give access to hackers, and disable security settings. Troj/RKOSX-A was discovered - a Mac OS X tool to assist hackers create backdoor Trojans, which can give them access and control over your Apple Mac computer. In November, Sophos warned of the Jahlav Trojan, and Apple issued a support advisory urging customers to run anti-virus software.

2009: In January 2009, hackers began to distribute the OSX/iWorkS-A Trojan horse via BitTorrent inside pirated versions of Apple's iWork '09 software suite. In the same month, a new variant of the Trojan was distributed in a pirated version of Adobe Photoshop CS4. In March, Sophos reported on how hackers were planting versions of the RSPlug Trojan horse on websites, posing as amn HDTV program called MacCinema. View a video of this attack here. In June, SophosLabs discovered a new version of the Tored email worm for Mac OS X, and hackers planted a version of the Jahlav Mac Trojan horse on a website posing as a portal for hardcore porn videos. Shortly afterwards, the Twitter account of celebrity blogger Guy Kawasaki had a malicious link posted onto it, claiming to point to a sex video of Gossip Girl actress Leighton Meester. In reality, however, the link lead unsuspecting users to malware which could infect Mac users.