THE ST'S VIRUS: THE STORY CONTINUES WITH PART V
by Richard Karsmakers
Although the height of the excitement with regard to viruses
seems to have died out, these small mutants of informatics keep
on popping up every now and again. Lucky enough, the notorious
link-virus (see ST NEWS Volume 3 issue 2) has not been known to
cause harm yet - maybe due to my "Virus Destruction Utility"
version 3.0 that was launched a bit over a month ago. Who knows?
Since the first publication of an article about ST viruses, in
ST NEWS Volume 2 Issue 8, many magazines have written about the
subject - not always with success. In Holland, articles appeared
in "Personal Computer Magazine", various newspapers, "Clipboard"
from ST Club Eindhoven, "ST" from the Stichting ST and "MCN
Magazine" (haha). In Germany, "Happy Computer" spent an entire
issue writing many pages about viruses (and even a "Virus
Construction Set", sick!). But in the other ST-dedicated
magazines abroad I have not read more than but a few lines about
the subject. So I have spent an enormous amount of work in recent
weeks and I have sent articles about the virus (ALL there is to
know, and explanation of all the nonsense that is said) to "Page
6", "ST World", "MVACE Newsletter" (Ohio, United States), "ST
Log", "WACE" (Wellington, New Zealand) and the disk magazine
"MAST Newsdisk" (Minneapolis, United States).
So there's no excuse left now to be unaware of computer viruses,
or to talk nonsense like to many people do (like "things like
that don't happen to me").
Rumours are spreading that there are one or two new link-viruses
in Germany, but I have not yet received those. However, quite a
few bootsector loaders have been published in the last month so
that I have also made an update version of the "Virus Destruction
Utility": Version 3.1 (available from June 1st 1988). This
program can ordered by transferring an amount of money contained
in the table on the next page to giro account number 5060326 of
Richard Karsmakers, Helmond, The Netherlands. Cheques for an
equal amount can also be sent to: Richard Karsmakers,
Kievitstraat 50, NL-5702, LE Helmond. Please do not send cash,
but if you still do so, please restrict yourself to currencies
marked with an asterisk (*)! If you decide to use cheques, please
add 50% to the purchase price (since cashing foreign cheques is
charged for here).
The features of the "Virus Destruction Utility" V3.1 and up are:
* It recognizes ALL known ST viruses (link-and bootsector)
* It annihilates ALL these viruses (also the link-virus!)
* It recognizes over 60 commercial programs to be harmless,
rather suspect them of being viruses
* Harmless data on infected disks remains 100% intact!
* It can immunize your disks against all known bootsector
viruses
* It can repair damaged bootsectors of a multitude of commercial
programs (over 40)
* There's a comfortable update service
* Usermanual added on the disk
TABLE OF PRICES OF THE "VIRUS DESTRUCTION UTILITY" V3.0 AND UP:
_________________________________________________________________
Country: Purchase amount: Update amount:
¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯
Netherlands* ƒ 19.95 ƒ 10.--
United Kingdom* £ 6.95 £ 4.--
United States of A. $ 11.95 $ 7.--
Belgium* Bfr 395.-- Bfr 200.--
France Fr 64.95 Fr 30.--
Germany* DM 18.95 DM 10.--
Italy L 1395.-- L 700.--
Canada $ 13.95 $ 8.--
New Zealand $ 16.95 $ 9.--
Sweden Kr 64.95 Kr 35.--
Norway Kr 68.95 Kr 37.--
Greece D 1495.-- D 800.--
Austria Sch 129.95 Sch 65.--
Switzerland Fr 14.95 Fr 8.--
If you already have a copy, you should supply your licence
number and supply the amount of money in the "update amount"
column. Add 75% to that amount if you use cheques.
All registered users will receive a note when an update is
published. They can order the update at the price specified in
the 'update amount' column. When they do not order an update,
they will get no update release notes anymore. About once in
every two months, an update can be expected.
I hope to have supplied you with a good weapon in the combat
against viruses - at an affordable price!�
Disclaimer
The text of the articles is identical to the originals like they appeared
in old ST NEWS issues. Please take into consideration that the author(s)
was (were) a lot younger and less responsible back then. So bad jokes,
bad English, youthful arrogance, insults, bravura, over-crediting and
tastelessness should be taken with at least a grain of salt. Any contact
and/or payment information, as well as deadlines/release dates of any
kind should be regarded as outdated. Due to the fact that these pages are
not actually contained in an Atari executable here, references to scroll
texts, featured demo screens and hidden articles may also be irrelevant.