AIDS Data Disk Has PC-Damaging Virus

A mysterious computer diskette about AIDS that was mailed to major corporations, insurance companies and health professionals across the world contains a hidden program that has destroyed information in thousands of personal and corporate computers, police in London said Thursday.

Officials of Scotland Yard said at least 10,000 copies of an unusual “AIDS Information Diskette,” which promised to help users deduce their risk of becoming infected with the AIDS virus, were sent to people in England, Scandinavia, Africa and the United States.

Hospital systems from London to Stockholm reported damage Thursday and AIDS researchers at major institutions in the United States, from the National Institutes of Health to the University of California at San Francisco, issued alerts to all their computer users.

“Extremely urgent message for all National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease PC Users,” said a flyer sent Thursday to AIDS researchers at NIH. “A diskette from PC Cyborg Corp. contains a highly destructive virus. All systems running these programs had ALL hard disk data DESTROYED.” Neither that corporation nor Ketema Associates, its parent company, has any known officers or location, according to people who tried Thursday to find them.

In Sweden, the State Bacteriological Laboratory sent letters to clinics and doctors warning them of the diskette. Chase Manhattan Bank was one of the first companies to report problems with the diskette, which also was sent to the London Stock Exchange, British Telecommunications, Lloyds Bank, the Midland Bank, other major banks and manufacturing companies.

“We have never seen anything approaching the magnitude of this attack,” said John McAfee, chairman of the Computer Virus Industry Assn., though he noted no damage had yet been reported in the United States. “It took enormous preparation, coordination and a huge amount of money.”

People familiar with computer “viruses” and other computer “diseases” were baffled by the maliciousness of the crime, the amount of money and sophistication it required and its lack of any immediately discernible motive.

Computer programs written as pranks or tools of minor sabotage have become ubiquitous over the past few years. But this one was different, according to experts across the country.

The diskette came in a slick package mailed from offices on London’s tony New Bond Street. The bright blue cover sheet said the package contained AIDS information, and informed recipients that the information was easy to use and would help them calculate the risks of exposure to the disease.