ry and may attack and spread without its victim's knowledge. There are at least 8600 known viruses worldwide and new ones are being added at the rate of 200 a month. This story received front page notice in the newspapers, and a prominent place in the television news bulletin of every station. This virus that "Harry McBungus" created when he was a high school student, shut down the ATO national network for a full day, and anti-virus experts were still working on cleaning up the problems three days later. All 26 branches of ATO had to be isolated while the virus was finally tracked down to a branch in a Melbourne suburb.Australian computer vandals are believed responsible for hundreds of viruses which have caused millions of dollars in damage worldwide. Australia is infamous for virus groups such as Viral Labs and Distribution (VLAD), Computer Virus Research and Information Service (CRIS is not based in Australia but many of its writers are), and Revelation among others. Millions of computers around the world are hit by viruses each year, in spite of out laying billions of dollars for anti-virus protection (italicized words are defined in the glossary). It is general knowledge in the virus community that the average virus attack takes almost two and a half days to eradicate. Even then, a quarter of the companies hit by a virus can expect to be re-infected within thirty days. Viruses can be programmed to attack on contact or to sit dormant like a time bomb, set to go off on a specific date. Australian viruses with names such as Puke.393, Aussie Parasite, Dudley, and Incest have created havoc in both private enterprise and government departments.This background raises some questions. A virus writer rarely ever actually touches a computer that he infects because viruses contaminate a computer through infected disks, BBS's (Bulletin Board Services), on-line services, the Internet, and innocent looking programs (called "Trojans" be...
