Antivirus (AV) software is crucial for protecting computers by preventing, detecting, and removing various forms of malware, expanding beyond its original focus on computer viruses to include threats like phishing. Its history began with the "Creeper virus" in 1971, which was controversially removed by "The Reaper," a program itself considered by some to be the first antivirus. The term "computer virus" was coined by Fred Cohen in 1983, with early widespread infections like "Brain" (1986) spreading via floppy disks before the internet became prevalent.
The late 1980s saw the birth of the commercial AV industry, with pioneers like Bernd Fix, G Data (Andreas Lüning and Kai Figge), McAfee (John McAfee), and NOD's creators launching their initial products in 1987. This era also brought Fred Cohen's significant theorem in 1987, stating the impossibility of an algorithm to perfectly detect all possible computer viruses, a foundational challenge for AV development.