  Although self-replicating programs and viruses have existed since the 1960s
and 70s, Elk Cloner was the first virus to circulate among personal computers
in the wild. Despite its historical significance, it received comparatively
little attention when it first appeared in 1982. In this paper, we: present the
first detailed examination of the operation and structure of Elk Cloner;
discuss the effect of environmental characteristics on its virulence; and
provide supporting evidence for several hypotheses about why its release was
largely ignored in the early 1980s.
