Chernobyl virus will bring chaos

By RICHARD GRANT
Updated:

 

Businesses are braced for an attack by a new nightmare virus that could disable computers infected with it on April 26.

It comes hard on the heels of the Melissa virus that last week set a record as the world's fastestspreading computer virus. Melissa caused temporary havoc in more than 100,000 companies worldwide and boosted sales of anti-virus software updated to cope with it.

Thousands of UK companies including City brokers and banks were forced to shut down their e-mail systems while they eliminated the virus and installed new software to prevent it recurring. Companies reported to be affected included Microsoft, Intel, Lucent and ICL.

But the April 26 virus, known as the Chernobyl virus because it has been set to strike on the 13th anniversary of the meltdown at the Ukraine nuclear plant, is being treated as more serious. It is known as a sleeper virus because it can sit undetected in a computer for months.

When it goes off it immediately overwrites both the computer's hard disk, eliminating all data, and disables the chip that allows the computer to be started. The only solution is to replace the chip.

Copies of the virus are thought to have been first distributed via pirated CD disks including counterfeit copies of Windows 98.

According to Jason Holloway of DataFellows, an anti-virus software company, some users may have also accidentally downloaded it with games from the Internet.

'This is a particularly malicious and destructive virus,' he said. 'We are treating it as a more serious threat than the Melissa virus, which is basically a nuisance.'

The Melissa virus spread fast and caused havoc because it arrived via e-mail on a user's machine and then sent a message listing Internet porn sites to the first 50 names in that computer's address book, creating a snowball effect.

Two variations of the virus, one called Nicole and the other Papa, have been created by hackers who obtained copies of its basic code from the Internet.

If the Chernobyl virus has reached your computer, the only ways to prevent it activating are either to screen the computer with anti-virus software or not to switch on on April 26.

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