When the workers of a Washington, D.C., company arrived at their office one morning and switched on their computers, they found an amusing message flashing across their terminals: "Your PC is now stoned. Legalize marijuana."
Then came the sinking realization that it was no joke - but rather it was a way of computer hackers saying: Gotcha. All the computers at this Washington, D.C., firm had their memories wiped clean and internal files destroyed by a computer virus - the deliberate sabotaging of a computer system.An infinite number of viruses have been employed, and most even have names and aliases, and are used more than once. This particular virus even has aliases that include "Hawaii," "Marijuana," "New Zealand," "Smithsonian," or "Hamo."
Other viruses are known in the trade by aliases that include "Friday 13th," "Frog's Alley," "Fu Manchu" and "Shake."
The authors of the virus called "Sunday" apparently crusade for leisure time. Their virus, which is triggered when infected files run on any Sunday, flashes this message: "Today is Sunday! Why do you work so hard? All work and no play make you a dull boy! Come on! Let's go out and have some fun!"
The lighthearted names belie the fact that viruses are lethal to the nation's private and governmental computer systems. Experts estimate that computer crime costs the U.S. economy upward of $50 billion annually. These are typically "perfect crimes" in the sense that detection is difficult and only one out of every 22,000 computer crimes results in a conviction.
Winn Schwartau, executive director of the International Partnership Against Computer Terrorism, believes that an estimated 521 viruses have been identified, and that an average of 12 new computer viruses are being introduced every day.
It happens with startling frequency, though only some of the more celebrated cases hit the headlines. Such as the estimated $116 million spent repairing damage caused by a "worm" virus inserted into the nation's largest computer network by a Cornell University student in 1988. And the $100 million to clean up the effects of the so-called "Columbus Day" virus of 1989.
Sources told our associate Dean Boyd that the computers of America's private sector are at even greater peril than those of the government. Last April, we reported that many U.S. government computers are easy prey for saboteurs. A recent example involves a Dutch hacker group that evaded U.S. authorities for nearly six months as they penetrated the computer systems of the Kennedy Space Center, the Pentagon's Pacific Fleet Command and the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.
Until this new breed of microchip terrorists can be foiled by prevention and prosecution, the crime wave will go unabated. According to Winn Schwartau, it is "safer to commit a computer crime than to drive your car to work."