IBM Virus Not Widespread, Experts Say
Computer security experts Thursday downplayed the potential danger of a computer virus that could strike IBM and compatible personal computers next month.
The virus--called, among other things, Datacrime ’89 and the Columbus Day virus--can erase files kept on a system’s hard disk, a computer’s primary storage area.
But experts said the likelihood of infection from the virus is remote and urged IBM and IBM-compatible personal computer owners not to panic. “There is pure and complete paranoia out there now,” said John McAfee, chairman of the Computer Virus Industry Assn. “The virus does not pose a statistically valid threat.”
The virus, designed by its unknown creators to infect IBM and other computers using the DOS operating system, can only be transmitted by floppy disks, networks, modems and computers that have already been infected. So PC users who have not shared their data or disks with others should not be affected, McAfee said.
Internal Clock
“The likelihood of getting it is remote,” he said.
“It’s like someone in the United States catching amoebic dysentery: very rare.”
Harold J. Highland, editor of Computers & Security in Elmont, N.Y., said: “It’s a low-probability, high-consequence risk.”
However, there are still millions of users--primarily business workers tied together on networks and home-based users who use modems to check bulletin boards and send files to their offices--who remain potentially at risk.
According to experts who have decoded it, unless the virus is disarmed, it can be triggered any time after the internal clock of a PC reaches Oct. 13. After being triggered, the virus can wipe out a disk’s entire contents.
McAfee said concerned users can obtain a free copy of a virus-detecting program from the association to determine if their systems have been infected. Because the virus can still spread until Oct. 12, security experts urged concerned users to copy the contents of their hard disks as an extra precaution.
Although the virus was well known to a handful of computer security officials early this summer, news of it leaked to the public this month after a computer security expert for a Washington-area company heard about it from sources in Europe and began warning his firm’s government clients.
Thomas Patterson, a security specialist for Centel Federal Systems, a computer installation company in Reston, Va., said a European oil company employee learned of the virus from a group of young hackers in Europe who had bragged of the problems it could cause.
Additional information about the virus is available from Centel Federal Systems by calling 1-800-843-4850. Programs to detect the virus are available from the Computer Virus Industry Assn. by calling 408-727-4559.
