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From: gcw20877@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (G. Wang)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: Possible DOS Virus (?)
Keywords: dot COM
Message-ID: <1989Sep14.215502.18864@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu>
Date: 14 Sep 89 21:55:02 GMT
References: <0000@starsend.UUPC>
Sender: news@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu (News)
Reply-To: gcw20877@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (G. Wang)
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Lines: 36

In article <0000@starsend.UUPC> floyd@starsend.UUCP writes:
>An article in the September 11th issue of Info-World warns of a DOS virus
>which is supposed to be triggered on Oct. 12 and destroy hard disk track 0.
>It is has been called, "Datacrime 89", A.K.A "The Columbus Day Virus",
>A.K.A. "The Icelandic Virus."
>
>It is reported to propogate itself by attaching to .COM files (COMMAND.COM
>is supoosed to be immune).  The article offers a possible way to determine
>if your file system might be infected.
>
>Has anyone discovered this beasty on their system?
>
I just want to state promptly that the DATACRIME VIRUS is *NOT*
a large risk in the USA... The comp.virus newsgroups is a very
good newsgroup to read if you are interested in the current
events of viruses... There have been about 40 cases reported in
Europe and only 7 reported cases in the USA... The paranoia
stirred up by recent articles should be freak out the average
user...

Basically the most common virus (as reported by John McAfee,
author of VIRUSCAN) reported in the past 30 days is the
JERUSALEM-B virus... I don't recall the exact percentage break
downs but after that follows 1701/1704 Boot Virus, Ping Pong,
and Cascade... All other viruses compose only about 5% I think
it was...

I highly recommend John McAfee's VIRUSCAN program.. It can be found
on many BBS and also on SIMTEL... The most recent versions can
be found on John's BBS - HomeBase BBS - (408) 988-4004

Hope this helps...

George Wang
University of Illinois
gcw20877@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu