VIRUSCAN Ver. 3.1V62 - Finds Elusive Viruses! Copyright 1990 David Batterson The virus scare is partly real and partly a lack of knowledge on the part of many new users. I think it's accurate to state that in most cases where a PC user suspects a virus, that is NOT the problem! However, viruses are indeed infecting PCs around the country. From reading BBS messages from around the country, I've learned that in many cases, the virus is not spread through shareware/BBSs, but rather through illegal copies of commercial software. There's a lesson to be learned here: if you are ripping off software companies by using pirated copies, then perhaps you deserve to have your PC infected with a virus. You'll get no sympathy from here. OK, let's assume that's not the case, and you strongly suspect that your PC is infected. Then you'd better get a copy of VIRUSCAN from McAfee Associates. You may have seen it simply as SCAN.EXE on BBSs. The number of new viruses has grown from a handful to dozens, with new ones popping up overnight, like daisies in a meadow. So VIRUSCAN is updated on a constant basis. If you have an old version of SCAN.EXE, it just may not find a recent virus in your system. Therefore, it's a good idea to send your registration fee of $25 [for home use; corp. site licenses available], and get the latest version of VIRUSCAN. It's also sure to be virus-free. [Some anti-virus programs have been downloaded from BBSs, and found to be infected themselves!] VIRUSCAN contains a self-test which runs at load time. If SCAN.EXE has been modified in any way, a warning will be displayed. However, it will still continue to check for viruses. Also packaged is the VALIDATE program that will authenticate the integrity of SCAN.EXE and other programs. VIRUSCAN Ver. 3.1V62 identifies four new viruses. "The first is a .COM and .EXE infector called the Eight Tunes virus (also called the 1971 virus). This virus is memory resident and randomly plays one of eight German folk songs on the system speaker. It appears to have no destructive code within it. A second musical is the Yankee Doodle-2 virus. This virus is similar to the first Yankee Doodle, except that it plays the Yankee Doodle tune as soon as an infected program is executed. It infects .EXE files only." "The third virus reported is a small non-memory resident .COM infector called the Kennedy virus. It appears to have no destructive or disruptive code but it does contain a reference to the Kennedy family. The fourth virus is a destructive virus called the June 16th virus. It is a non-resident virus that infects .COM files, including the Command Interpreter (COMMAND.COM). On every June 16th, the virus activates and replaces all FAT entries with the word 'ZAPPED.'" (The preceding descriptions are from McAfee Associates.) VIRUSCAN will scans your disks or entire system, and identify any pre- existing PC virus infection. It will indicate the specific files or system areas that are infected and will identify the virus strain. SCAN version 3.1V62 can identify 86 virus strains and numerous sub-varieties for each strain. The 86 viruses include the ten most common viruses "which account for over 95% of all reported PC infections." Removal can then be done automatically using the SCAN /D option. Automatic disinfectors are available for the majority of the known viruses. Registered VIRUSCAN users can contact McAfee Associates for free assistance in manually removing the virus or for information on disinfection utilities. If the infection is widespread, you can get McAfee's CLEAN-UP VIRUS REMOVER, Ver. 3.1V62. This shareware product sells for $35 (home use). All known viruses infect one of the following areas: The hard disk partition table; the DOS boot sector of hard disks or floppies; or one or more executable files within the system. The executable files may be operating system programs, system device drivers, .COM files, .EXE files, overlay files or any other file which can be loaded into memory and executed. VIRUSCAN identifies every area or file that has become infected and indicates the name of the virus that has infected each file. VIRUSCAN can check the entire system, an individual diskette, a sub-directory or an individual file for an existing virus. VIRUSCAN will require approximately 3 minutes of run time for each 1,000 files on the designated drive. SCAN will exit with the following exit codes: 0 - Normal termination, no viruses found 1 - One or more viruses found 2 - Abnormal termination (Error) We've in a period in which treacherous viruses are causing a great deal of heartbreak for people: HIV (the AIDS virus) and computer viruses. Hopefully, the first will be wiped out in time. Thanks to John McAfee and others, at least the latter will become tamed if not eliminated. To register VIRUSCAN shareware, or for more information, contact McAfee Associates, 4423 Cheeney Street, Santa Clara, CA 95054; 408-988-3832, BBS: 408-988-4004. # David Batterson reviews a lot of PC hardware and software. Contact him via virus-free MCI-Mail: DBATTERSON.