🚀 go-pugleaf

Alan_J_Roberts@cup.portal.com writes:
>This is an urgent forward from John McAfee:
>
>     A distribution diskette from a corporation calling itself
>PC Cyborg has been widely distributed to major corporations and
>PC user groups around the world and the diskette contains a
>highly destructive trojan.

Further information from the London "Independent" newspaper 15 Dec
bylined by Science Editor Tom Wilkie, titled 'Trojan' threatens 10,000
computers:

Fears are growing that more than one mailing list was used
todistribute the "Aids Information" computer diskette which is
damaging computers.

Police said yesterday that they had been "inundated" by thousands of
complaints about the disk, which they believe may have been
distributed to more than 10,000 addresses in Britain. There are also
unconfirmed reports tha delegates to an Aids conference in Sweden have
been sent copies of the diskette from London.

Experts estimate that the cost of the operation must run to between
8,000 and 10,000 pounds.

..

According to Dr Alan Solomon, a leading expert on computer security,
the program counts the times a user switches on the machine.

After about 90 startups, Dr Solomons said, the damage routine is
triggered. The program encrypts the names of all files held on the
hard disks and "hides" them. This means that the computer's normal
operating software is unable to find anything except one file,
"CYBORG.DOC" which contains a demand for payment.

According to Steve Robinson of the software company Insoft, the damage
routine may be triggered on some machines almost as soon as the
program is run.  ...

>In addition, the British magazine "PC Business World" has
>included a copy of the diskette with its most recent publication

 (I do not confirm the truth of this assertion, but the article continues)

PC Business World has produced an "Aidsout" program, written by virus
hunter Jim Bates, on a disk which the magazine will distribute free to
victims.  The program is also available on "Connect" the IBM PC User
Group bulletin board.

.. (various other symptoms)

Experts agree the program is so big and cleverly written that it will
take months to tease out all the things it may do.  For that reason,
users should remove all trace from machines as soon as possible.

For free information send a SAE to: IBM PC User Group, PO Box 360,
Harrow HA1 4LQ; or Dr. Alan Solomon, S and S, Watermeadow, Chesham,
Bucks, HP5 1LP.