Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!husc6!cmcl2!nrl-cmf!ames!pasteur!agate!labrea!decwrl!pyramid!prls!philabs!ttidca!hollombe From: hollombe@ttidca.TTI.COM (The Polymath) Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc Subject: Re: Anyone infected by "Brain" virus? Message-ID: <3222@ttidca.TTI.COM> Date: 28 Sep 88 00:50:39 GMT References: <10111@eddie.MIT.EDU> <42900022@uicsrd.csrd.uiuc.edu> Reply-To: hollombe@ttidcb.tti.com (The Polymath) Organization: The Cat Factory Lines: 31 In article <42900022@uicsrd.csrd.uiuc.edu> krause@uicsrd.csrd.uiuc.edu writes: }>The friend asked me for advice; he and his colleagues have enormous }>amounts of pirated stuff which they use with their extensive databases, }>etc. Obviously he's afraid that data might start evaporating or }>changing sometime soon, and wants any and all advice. ... } } Somehow I don't feel sorry for your friend. He wants advice? }Tell him to go out and buy legal copies of his software. Sheesh. This week's issue of _Time_ magazine has computer viruses (viri?) as its cover story. The article goes into some detail about the Brain virus, aka the Pakistani Virus. It seems it was invented by a couple of Pakistani computer store owners to punish _American_ software pirates. They were selling pirated software our of their shop in Lahore to both Pakistanis and Americans, but only the Americans got the infected versions. Their reasoning: Pakistani copyright law doesn't protect computer software, so their Pakistani customers weren't breaking the law, but the American tourists and students were pirates and had to be punished. The virus will eventually destroy the data on your friend's disk. Use a disk editor to salvage what you can before its too late. I hope your friend learns a lesson about pirating. Too bad the Pakistanis won't learn it too. -- The Polymath (aka: Jerry Hollombe, hollombe@ttidca.tti.com) Illegitimati Nil Citicorp(+)TTI Carborundum 3100 Ocean Park Blvd. (213) 452-9191, x2483 Santa Monica, CA 90405 {csun|philabs|psivax}!ttidca!hollombe