Computer Virus Surfaces, but It’s Low-Grade Fever
Computer experts received scattered reports today of computer viruses that had struck unsuspecting users on Friday the 13th, even as they cautioned that fears of widespread damage were overblown.
An institute for the blind in London was among the victims, although it apparently was infected with a previously known virus, not the so-called Columbus Day virus that was seen for the first time when it was activated by computers’ internal clocks at 12:01 today.
Ross M. Greenberg, a security specialist in New York and creator of the Flu-Shot Plus and Virex-PC anti-viral software, said at mid-morning that he had received seven reports of virus strikes since midnight, but only one was the Columbus Day virus.
He said 12 personal computers at Columbia University in New York City were affected, but that the university had made backup files and was merely inconvenienced.
Columbia spokeswoman Judith Leynse said, “Our computer center checked widely, and there were no reports of anything.”
The six other virus reports Greenberg received were of the so-called PLO virus, an older virus designed to erase programs every Friday the 13th. Greenberg had said earlier that the PLO virus was far more widespread and likely to cause more trouble today than the new Columbus Day virus.
In Britain, the Royal National Institution for the Blind reported that it was struck by a virus.
“We found that most of our program files are gone. Every time we try to look at a new program file it vanishes in front of our eyes,” said Corri Barrett of the institute in London. “It’s horrendous. Months and months of work has been wiped out here.”
Barrett said in a BBC-TV interview that the virus might have contaminated disks distributed to blind clients and that their systems had been infected.
Computer viruses, created by anonymous programmers, are pieces of software that make copies of themselves and spread from one machine to another through infected floppy disks, office networks or phone links such as computer bulletin boards.
Once activated, the rogue program copies itself like a breeding germ, eating away processing power and storage space or destroying information. About 30 viruses are known to exist, not counting strains and mutations.
