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From: crjones@eecs.wsu.edu (Craig Jones - grad student)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.misc
Subject: RE: Virus Warning!
Message-ID: <1990Dec15.220004.9734@eecs.wsu.edu>
Date: 15 Dec 90 22:00:04 GMT
Reply-To: crjones@eecs.wsu.edu (Craig Jones - grad student)
Distribution: na
Organization: Washington State University, Pullman
Lines: 36

In article 4171 of comp.sys.ibm.pc.misc:
dr.warren@pro-graphics.cts.com (Warren Lieuallen) writes:

|Subject: Virus Warning!
|Message-ID: <6336@crash.cts.com>
|Date: 15 Dec 90 02:56:19 GMT
|
|   I've had a computer for years, and thought right along with everybody
|else that all this virus hoopla was way overblown by the media.  Well,
|lo and behold, I just got "bitten" by the Jerusalem virus last week.
|Managed to recover nicely, thanks to the Scan program, but thought I'd
|pass around the word that viruses are apparently still alive and well.
|Don't know the precise source of this one, but strongly suspect a shared
|computer at work, which has had several pirated games added to it in
|the last few weeks (not by me, so don't send nasty replies!).  Viruses
|planted in pirated stuff is ironic justice, but the innocent also
|suffer.
|

I'm a supervisory teaching assistant for an introductory computer course
serving approx. 900 business students each semester.  We have the students
do some basic assignments in word processing, spreadsheets, and relational
databases using ancient PC's with TWO FLOPPY drives only (ie. no hard drives).
Somehow these people manage to collect all sorts of viruses each semester.
From the visits that my TA's and I have from students with crippled/infected
disks I would hazard a guess that maybe 40% of the 900 pick up some sort
of virus during the semester -- whether they know it or not.

Moral of story:  People who write viruses are geeks
                                 -and-
                 You can't be too careful.  These things can propagate in
                 even the most unlikely of circumstances.

Boot clean.  Scan often.  Don't even trust your own dog's disks.

Craig Jones  -- Fully disclaimed and virus-free (I hope).