“Antivirus is dead!” has been the marketing cry of vendors wishing to displace antivirus (AV) technology with their “superior” comprehensive products. It’s true, purely signature-based AV scanners are extinct; however, AV is constantly evolving. The future can be predicted through knowledge of the past. This first in a two-part series on AV, this brief studies its evolution from the Brain virus to the Flame worm, from single threat remediation to modern day suites of technologies that contain industry-developed technology and protection mechanisms adopted from other security sectors.