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The following article is from the Los Angeles Times, Friday, 
December 15, 1989, page D3.

AIDS Data Disk Has PC-Damaging Virus

by Michael Specter
The Washington Post

     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," sand 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.