The document traces the evolution of malware from early theoretical concepts in the 1940s-1960s to modern viruses, worms, trojans, and botnets. It outlines key events like the first computer virus in 1971, first IBM PC virus in 1986, first internet worm in 1988, rise of polymorphic and metamorphic viruses in the late 1980s-1990s, emergence of macro and email-borne viruses in the 1990s, and increasingly sophisticated botnets in the 2000s responsible for large-scale attacks. The document thus provides a high-level history of malware development and some of its most impactful examples from the past 70 years.