"A New Strain of Electronic Vandalism"

Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1989. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.

"A New Strain of Electronic Vandalism"

Newsweek (12/25/89) Vol. 114, No. 26, P. 82

Abstract: Last week, several thousand researchers, journalists, and AIDS activists who attended a conference in Sweden in 1988 were among the recipients of computer disks that allegedly carried "health information...specially designed to help members of the public concerned about AIDS and medical professionals." Instead of information, computer users found themselves with a "Trojan horse" that garbled or erased other data in their computers' memories. Major research institutions sent out warnings that prevented U.S. computers from suffering damage, but several European banks and hospitals lost data. The diskettes came with a fine-print "license agreement" warning the user to send $378 to a post-office box in Panama to avoid unpleasant side effects. Some officials theorize the saboteur wanted to use the infectious disk as a warning about how easy it is to catch AIDS. Others, calling researchers and activists unlikely targets for that kind of lesson, believe the perpetrator was simply someone very rich and very malicious.

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