response 1 of 31:

Oct 1 23:15 UTC 1993

I had one once on a floppy given me by a colleague at the U. Disinfectant
caught it, and that's all.

response 3 of 31:

Oct 2 05:13 UTC 1993

For Macs, it's so simple to stay virus free. Just Run Disinfectant
and either install its init or install Gatekeeper. I like Gatekeeper
instead of the Disinfectant init, but that's a matter of preference.
All of this code is free, and maintained by anti-viral gurus John
Norstad at Northwestern, and Chris Johnson at U. Texas.

Virus activity on Macs has flared up from time to time, but recently
there has been very little going on. Antivirals are *very* effective.

I am very concerned about virii on macs because I sell mac software.
Someone else will have to fill us in on other platforms.

response 5 of 31:

Oct 2 23:31 UTC 1993

Our PC lab at work has lately been infested with a virus.  I haven't
caught it yet (I use write-protected disks), but others haven't been
so lucky.  The recommendation is to run McAfee's Scan when entering the
network (takes about 5 minutes...bleah), and to use it to check your
disks.  Unfortunately, the people in charge of the network didn't think
to provide us with a Scan that will test floppies...we have to provide that.
  We're not sure where the virus is coming from, probably one or two
people with infected disks keep re-infecting the computers.  
  As far as Mac virii go, the Macs where I work are the absolute pits
...they are constantly infecting disks (and the Disinfectant catches the
problem).  If I worry about viruses, it's almost always when I use the
Macs.
  I've never had a virus on my home computer (at least Scan has never
found one).  I run Scan once a week with a cron-type program.  Does that
seem often enough?

response 7 of 31:

Oct 4 16:44 UTC 1993

It has been almost 6 months since the last Mac virus was detected.  Not
bad...

response 9 of 31:

Oct 5 23:07 UTC 1993

It looks like I indeed picked up the virus from the machines at our
home office.  The computer that I use there was infected.  Normally,
they run a virus checker on all the computers there.  The virus
checker gets run every time someone logs into the network.  This
computer was different from all the others, though, in that it was not
connected to the network.

response 11 of 31:

Oct 23 05:03 UTC 1993

Aha - WDEF - a Mac virus - something I know about:

I have all kinds of info about WDEF from the Disinfectant Help File,
if you're interested. The gist of it is that unlike most viruses, WDEF
only infects the desktop file. It does not affect applications.

Under system 7, the desktop file has been replaced by the desktop
database (two new invisible files). So only Macs running system 6
are vulnerable. All of the systems I oversee at work are running
sys 7 so I don't have to worry about WDEF. Also-- If I had to worry
about it, I'd get "GateKeepr AID" a free init from Chris Johnson
at utexas.edu which will forever keep WDEF off your system. No need
to pay good money for antivirals that don't always work.

If you have 4M of Ram or more, I would recommend sys 7, which you
can legally get for free if you don't want documentation and support.
It's way cool.

response 13 of 31:

Oct 24 20:09 UTC 1993

The do, TS.  Unfortunately (my :5 above) "the people in charge of the
network" are not I (well maybe that's fortunate...).  It's a new
world on campus now.  ITD is basically out of it as far as most
computing goes (they are actuall forcing people set up their own
systems and thumb their noses at ITD).  This means we now have to deal
with college-level beaurocrats who controll what gets on the network
server and virus-scan software is one of the things they have there
(albeit three versions out of date), but it is not set up to scan
the user's disks, only the user's network space and the user's computer's
harddrive.  So if we want to scan our floppies, which is apparently
where all the virii are coming from, we need to supply our own virus
scan software.  And it is available via archive.umich.edu and the
SAVD ccid on MTS.  It's just the shortsightedness of the system
administrators that's annoying (and the time it takes to grab the
software from the archive).

response 15 of 31:

Oct 26 07:21 UTC 1993

true, srw, sorry if there was an inadvertant ommission previously.
I've always seen the two as a single package - didn';t consider
otherwise with this particular audience.
  
kentn, that;'s the result of shoddy leadership as stated from
my experience. Too bad all those people have to be unwittingly
in the implosion - oh, well, I tried.

response 17 of 31:

Jun 6 13:34 UTC 1994

> 
>  People - please note!    The following new computer viruses have been
>  detected.     Please be alert for them when you scan your computers!
> 
> OPRAH WINFREY VIRUS: Your 200MB hard drive suddenly shrinks to 80MB,
> and then slowly expands back to 200MB.
> 
> AT&T VIRUS: Every three minutes it tells you what great service you
> are getting.
> 
> MCI VIRUS: Every three minutes it reminds you that you're paying too
> much for the AT&T virus.
> 
> PAUL REVERE VIRUS: This revolutionary virus does not horse around. It
> warns you of impending hard disk attack---once if by LAN,
> twice if by C:>.
> 
> POLITICALLY CORRECT VIRUS: Never calls itself a "virus", but instead
> refers to itself as an "electronic microorganism."
> 
> RIGHT TO LIFE VIRUS: Won't allow you to delete a file, regardless of
> how old it is. If you attempt to erase a file, it requires
> you to first see a counselor about possible alternatives.
> 
> ROSS PEROT VIRUS: Activates every component in your system, just
> before the whole damn thing quits.
> 
> MARIO CUOMO VIRUS: It would be a great virus, but it refuses to run.
> 
> TED TURNER VIRUS: Colorizes your monochrome monitor.
> 
> ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER VIRUS: Terminates and stays resident. It'll be
> back.
> 
> DAN QUAYLE VIRUS: Their is sumthing rong wit your komputer, ewe
> jus cant figyour out watt!
> 
> GOVERNMENT ECONOMIST VIRUS: Nothing works, but all your diagnostic
> software says everything is fine.
> 
> NEW WORLD ORDER VIRUS: Probably harmless, but it makes a lot of people
> really mad just thinking about it.
> 
> FEDERAL BUREAUCRAT VIRUS: Divides your hard disk into hundreds of
> little units, each of which does practically nothing, but all of
> which claim to be the most important part of your computer.
> 
> GALLUP VIRUS: Sixty percent of the PCs infected will lose 38 percent
> of their data 14 percent of the time. (plus or minus a 3.5 percent
> margin of error.)
> 
> TEXAS VIRUS: Makes sure that it's bigger than any other file.
> 
> ADAM AND EVE VIRUS: Takes a couple of bytes out of your Apple.
> 
> CONGRESSIONAL VIRUS: The computer locks up, screen splits erratically
> with a message appearing on each half blaming the other side for the
> problem.
> 
> AIRLINE VIRUS: You're in California, but your data is in Massachusetts.
> 
> FREUDIAN VIRUS: Your computer becomes obsessed with marrying its own
> motherboard.
> 
> PBS VIRUS: Your programs stop every few minutes to ask for money.
> 
> ELVIS VIRUS: Your computer gets fat, slow and lazy, then self
> destructs; only to resurface at shopping malls and service stations
> across rural America.
> 
> OLLIE NORTH VIRUS: Causes your printer to become a paper shredder.
> 
> NIKE VIRUS: Just does it.
> 
> SEARS VIRUS: Your data won't appear unless you buy new cables, power
> supply and a set of shocks from Sear.
> 
> JIMMY HOFFA VIRUS: Your programs can never be found again.
> 
> CONGRESSIONAL VIRUS #2: Runs every program on the hard drive
> simultaneously, but doesn't allow the user to accomplish anything.
> 
> KEVORKIAN VIRUS: Helps your computer shut down as an act of mercy.
> 
> IMELDA MARCOS VIRUS: Sings you a song (slightly off key) on boot up,
> then subtracts money from your bank account and spends it all
> on expensive shoes it purchases through Prodigy.  After it had tried to
> spend it through CompuServe but was unable to find anything worth
> purchasing in their mall system.
> 
> STAR TREK VIRUS: Invades your system in places where no virus has gone
> before.
> 
> HEALTH CARE VIRUS: Tests your system for a day, finds nothing wrong,
> and sends you a bill for $4,500.
> 
> GEORGE BUSH VIRUS: It starts by boldly stating, "Read my docs....No new
> files!" on the screen. It proceeds to fill up all the free space on
> your hard drive with new files, then blames it on one of the
Congressional
> Virus'.
> 
> CLEVELAND INDIANS VIRUS: Makes your 486/50 machine perform like a 286/AT.
> 
> LAPD VIRUS: It claims it feels threatened by the other files on your PC
> and erases them all in "self defense".
> 
> CHICAGO CUBS VIRUS: Your PC makes frequent mistakes and comes in last in
> the reviews, but you still love it.
> 
> ORAL ROBERTS VIRUS:  Claims that if you don't send it a million dollars,
> it's programmer will take it back.
> 
> VAMPIRE VIRUS:  Screen goes black and mesmerizing displays appear on
> the monitor.  When it feels it has the user under control, sound board
> makes unusually noises sounding like a maniacal laughter then slurping,
> sucking sounds as the RAM, disk space and hard drive configurations
> slowly decrease.  There is no scan that can detect it however, if
> caught early, exposing the CPU to sunlight will destroy it.

response 19 of 31:

Dec 21 06:58 UTC 1994

You can record anything you want to replace that "boing" that
announces an error of some kind. Was it a virus, or some "friend"
that changed your...(found it) "Alert sound"?

response 21 of 31:

Dec 23 07:12 UTC 1994

It is a property of the nVir A virus that it says "Don't Panic" if you have
Macintalk installed.

nVir A and all the other Mac viruses are described in Disinfectant"
by John Norstad. Disinfectant is free, and it is the source of this info.

response 23 of 31:

Apr 24 22:11 UTC 1996

 I run "Speed Disk" weekly to defrag my HD, and a disinfectant every time I
startup. I am anal about getting a virus.