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kevin_thibedeautoday at 12:59 AM1 replyview on HN

Viruses were common on FTP sites and BBSs. They weren't all benign. DOS in particular had zero protections against damaging code. Bot armies hadn't been developed yet so malicious destruction was just as likely an outcome.


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transcriptasetoday at 2:39 AM

Yes, and what did the damaging code and viruses actually do in that era?

Software, OSs, and the internet at large were comically unsafe from a safety perspective. There was also a very high barrier of entry in terms of the skills required to take advantage of that, and very little incentive to do so compared to today or even 20 years ago.

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