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From: frisk@rhi.hi.is (Fridrik Skulason)
Newsgroups: comp.virus
Subject: Software company distributing viruses (PC)
Message-ID: <0006.8909211142.AA16502@ge.sei.cmu.edu>
Date: 20 Sep 89 17:39:39 GMT
Sender: Virus Discussion List <VIRUS-L@IBM1.CC.Lehigh.EDU>
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Approved: krvw@sei.cmu.edu

A few days ago I posted a note describing the distribution of PC
viruses here in Iceland. One interesting fact was that 1701/1704 is
the most common virus here, but it is only in second or third place
elsewhere.

I just got a phone call explaining why.

One software company here has been infected with this virus (1704-A)
for some time. They have sent out a number of updates to their
programs recently, with all .COM files infected.

This was discovered where one site received an update to one program
and used a virus-checking program, "just to be sure".

What was most serious about the whole thing was the ignorance of the
software company in question.

Their first response when they were told of this was something like:

    "We can't have a virus - there are no pirated games here"

I guess this will happen elsewhere, but until now there have been very
few occurrences of software companies distributing viruses (only 4
that I know of).

                            ---- frisk