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doom & gloom statements delighted reporters, panicked the
computing world, and pushed his company's software to the top of the charts.Sadly, John McAfee fell from the media's grace after the Michelangelo fiasco of 1992. Associated Press, Reuters', United Press International, and CNN (among many others) suffered incredible blows to their journalistic reputations. Needing a scapegoat to cover up their own incompetent reporting, these agencies chose poor old McAfee -- they dumped him like Princess Diana dumped Prince Charles.
John McAfee left the industry in disgrace. But he wrote the book on virus hype ("Computer Viruses, Worms, Data Diddlers, Killer Programs, and Other Threats to Your System," 1989, St. Martin's Press) and a new legion of followers relentlessly beats the drum of hysteria in his name.
But it doesn't matter. The press release claims Symantec customers can't test it -- because the feature doesn't yet exist in Norton AntiVirus! "At the first sign of a Java virus threat, Symantec will make this technology available to customers via an immediate virus definition update...."
The runners-up include
Jack Brock (53 votes):
A long-time bureaucrat at the General Accounting Office, Brock penned numerous reports over the years about U.S. government computer troubles. He testified before Congress in 1996 about his report on the government's vulnerability to computer attack:"Terrorists and other adversaries now have the ability to launch untraceable attacks from anywhere in the world. They could infect critical systems with sophisticated computer viruses, potentially causing them to malfunction."Yet a close reading of his GAO report shows very little information about viruses, period. When George Smith telephoned to ask for more details, Brock claimed the National Security Agency swore him to secrecy -- a novel way to avoid saying anything substantive about computer viruses!
CompUSA (71 votes):
This national chain of computer stores issued a press release urging people to buy antivirus software to combat Hare's September trigger date. They didn't say anything about the Hare virus media fiasco in August (itself a winner in the "event" category), but this omission didn't warrant a Computer Virus Hysteria nomination.Instead, our nominating committee based its decision on the very last paragraph of the press release: "ATTENTION MEDIA: In-store interviews regarding virus protection are being scheduled now. To schedule an interview with CompUSA personnel, contact...."
Makes sense to us! Why would reporters want to interview a virus expert by phone if they could interview a local computer store sales manager in person?
Peter Harrison (10 votes):
A marketing manager for Cheyenne Software, he figured prominently in the recent Hare virus media fiasco (itself a winner in the "event" category). Harrison must hold some serious credentials -- the company's press release about Hare quoted him instead of one of Cheyenne's virus experts.
"I don't have to have a computer to know what's out there."
The runners-up include
Mark Clauder (48 votes):
This director of product development at CompUSA (itself a runner-up in the "publicity" category) uttered an interesting quote in a September press release. They sell antivirus software made by McAfee, Symantec, and Cheyenne -- all of which offer downloadable versions as shareware. But Clauder explained why you should buy weeks-old software from CompUSA rather than download current versions from an Internet site:"If you download your protection ... you may not be protected from the latest strains of a virus."
Rick Kreysar (26 votes):
This vice-president of McAfee Associates took part in a RealAudio interview with PC World Online's Brian McWilliams. Mind you, we named the Virus Hysteria Awards in honor of company founder John McAfee. VP Kreysar suffered a memory lapse during the interview:"McAfee [Associates] has never been a company to hype viruses, and I think it is a poor trend that is happening ... in the last year."
Larry Magid (5 votes):
A syndicated computer pundit, Magid wrote a post-mortem column about the Hare virus media fiasco (itself a winner in the "event" category). Larry told his readers to calm down and he offered some advice for avoiding viruses. But why should readers feel confident about Magid's advice? After all, he openly admitted in his column:"As far as I know, I've only twice been infected by viruses."
Richard M. Smith (39 votes):
This president of Phar Lap Software went ballistic when he discovered an exploitable bug in Netscape Navigator. Smith holds no credentials in the fields of computer security -- but this didn't stop him from chastizing legitimate experts who seek to dispel the Good Times urban legend. In a public message to NCSA's Mich Kabay, Smith pointed to the obscure bug he found and adamantly proclaimed:"Its the good time virus for real."
Brian Williams (62 votes):
An anchor for the new MSNBC cable network (and himself a winner in the "journalism" category), Williams conducted a live interview about the Hare virus a few days before it turned into a media fiasco. Williams' inexperience with computers (ironic for a network co-founded by Microsoft) led to a spectacular quote about his fear of the Hare virus:"I'm scared to death that I'm going to get this or, even worse, my computer...."
And yet the Hare virus turned into another major media fiasco -- just one more in a string of serious media fiascos over the years. Current estimates now put Hare's toll at about one hundred computers worldwide. Those who predicted a worldwide catastrophe, as usual, credit the media hysteria itself for "helping to reduce" the total number of affected computers.
The runners-up include
Boza virus scare (23 votes):
The Associated Press warned at the beginning of the year of a new virus targeted at Windows 95 programs. Named after a mild Bulgarian brew, the Boza virus basically served as a press release for an Australian virus-writing group.Boza contained a number of bugs despite its simple design and it quickly earned the nickname "bozo." But the media didn't care -- they latched onto its status as "the first Windows 95 virus." Boza came hot on the heels of Microsoft's rollout for their new operating system, making it a newsworthy virus by definition.
AP at least cited Paul Ducklin of Sophos, who acknowledged the virus had not yet appeared "in the wild" -- but this fact quickly withered away as other news stories appeared about Boza. Antivirus companies scrambled to issue copycat press releases and they, too, seemed to overlook this important point. Frightened computer users who didn't even run Windows 95 concluded their computers might have contracted the virus!
Java virus scare (113 votes):
NetScape Navigator stood head & shoulders above other web browsers when it added the ability to run Java applets. It greatly increased the functionality of the World Wide Web, but it also generated a debate about computer security.Rumors of security holes in NetScape's Java module abound -- and, true to form, the media immediately screamed "virus!" Various experts studied the Java language and pretty much dismissed the idea.
Suddenly, Symantec (itself a winner in the "publicity" category) appeared out of nowhere with a bizzare press release saying they had a Java virus scanner in development. Not only did Symantec claim hackers could write viruses in Java, they said hackers could write two different types of Java viruses!
The computer media latched onto this press release with absolute gusto. Many of them printed it verbatim; others rewrote the press release to make it sound like a breaking news story. The term "black widow" sprung up to describe Java viruses. Many companies and government agencies quickly overreacted, ordering workers to disable Java because of the perceived threat. (Notice we said "perceived.")
And yet even in November we still can't find any Java viruses. Oh, sure: one person made a name for himself by writing about "hostile applets" and he even includes links to some. Big deal -- even Microsoft offers a hotlink to his website so users can learn about Java security issues.
The runners-up include
Lisa Carricaburu (8 votes):
A reporter for the Salt Lake [City] Tribune, Carricaburu quoted some interesting pseudo experts about the recent Hare virus scare. Various doom & gloom statements came from Peter Harrison, a marketing manager for Cheyenne Software (himself a runner-up in the "publicity" category), and Brett Miller, a marketing engineer at Intel. The report also claimed up to 100,000 computers would fail on 22 August because of Hare.Carricaburu's story also pointed out an important oversight. You see, genuine experts typically claim 1992's Michelangelo virus messed up only 10,000 to 20,000 computers -- but that's wrong. Carricaburu says it "affected millions." (Experts around the world stand corrected.)
James Daly (32 votes):
"DANGER! Deadly new computer viruses want to kill your PC" screamed the headline of James Daly's story in PC/Computing magazine. Actually, it was a comparison review of antivirus software.But two sidebar items stood out -- an interview with Ian "Captain Zap" Murphy and the "true tale" of a "virus attack on a nuclear power plant." The spine-chilling Zap interview convinced us Murphy was an electronic bogeyman, but Daly soothes readers with news that Captain Zap has since repented. (He repays society by working as a born-again computer security consultant.)
The virus attack on a nuclear plant? Administrative computers accidentally picked up the Word.Concept virus. Daly describes the "grueling task" as a heroic crew struggled to apply a simple fix to computers during the Labor Day weekend. "By Tuesday morning, when ... employees returned from their weekend in the sun, things were running again."
Pittsburgh Business Wire (23 votes):
The Hare virus proved a serious media fiasco (and it won in this year's "event" category). News agencies suffered blows to their reputations in August and wisely stayed away from the story in September. But this didn't deter the Pittsburgh Business Wire! They published a frightening 9/19/96 story:PC users beware. [22 September] marks the return of one of the deadliest computer viruses ever created.... [Hare will] potentially destroy data on thousands of hard drives.... "This is one of the most destructive I have ever encountered," says Professor Bob Hopkins, director of the Cooper Union Computer Center in New York.The Pittsburgh Business Wire report then switches its focus, describing one of those "any means possible" protection methods -- namely the SureFind data storage service, a company conveniently located in Pittsburgh!According to Hopkins, the virus is proving itself immune to some anti-virus programs because it can change itself to prevent detection. Computer experts are warning PC users to use any means possible to protect their valuable data....
Also of note: according to the Cooper Union University website, they offer no computer science degree program. The list of faculty members identifies Bob Hopkins as an associate professor, and the only "computer" teacher.
Stephen Pizzo (42 votes):
The upcoming date of 1/1/2000 will take its toll on many companies and government agencies -- they've written millions of lines of computer code which assume a year has only two digits (e.g. 1996 = "96"). When the year 2000 rolls around, many programs & operating systems will think it's the year 1900 instead, making for some "interesting" computational problems.Mind you, 1/1/2000 has nothing to do with viruses -- it's just a special date on the Gregorian calendar. Web Review reporter Stephen Pizzo propagated a new myth in a story about the year-2000 problem. The opening paragraph claims:
"The biggest and baddest computer virus in history is less than four years away from smashing the world's computer systems senseless. It's called the 'Millennium Virus.' "
Larry Seltzer (31 votes):
PC Magazine's Internet technical director filed a sensationalist story titled "Open Any E-Mail Letter Bombs Lately?" It also appeared on PC Week's website under the less sensational headline "Browser-based E-mail clients can be dangerous." The story begins with a dire warning:"One of the most infamous virus scares in the past couple of years was the Good Times virus, which was supposed to infect PCs through e-mail. It was rightly dismissed as a hoax at the time, because simply reading an e-mail message couldn't damage a PC. Now, for the first time, the idea of a Good Times-like virus is a real threat. HTML code was recently posted on CompuServe that crashes Netscape Navigator...."All of Seltzer's hype appears to come from a single source: Richard M. Smith, president of Phar Lap Software (and a runner-up in the "quotation" category), who discovered an obscure bug in Netscape Navigator.Smith admits he holds no credentials in the fields of computer security. He also admits talking to Seltzer about the bug before contacting Netscape. Oh, and Netscape quietly released a fix for it just one week after Seltzer's story hit the streets.
Jon Swartz (22 votes):
This staff writer for the San Francisco Chronicle wrote about the "top secret" laboratory where Symantec (itself a winner in the "publicity" category) studies computer viruses. You can read the original story or the detailed critique if you wish, but we'll try to cover it briefly here. He begins by giving the Symantec AntiVirus Research Center a cool acronym: SARC. "Like a scene out of the sci-fi movie 'Andromeda Strain,' technicians in a stark, claustrophobic lab operate the latest in high-tech gear to pinpoint and terminate a dangerous computer bug."Swartz lets readers know computer viruses "do not spread by casual contact -- for example, by simply laying a contaminated disk on top of a clean one or on top of a computer." He quotes Symantec's Alex Haddox, who said an unnamed company once "was losing $1 million a day" from a virus attack until Symantec stepped in with updated antivirus software. (No mention of what the unnamed company paid for this lifesaving help ... assuming any company truly lost $1 million a day in the first place because of a virus.)
Swartz offers the (ahem) romantic description of your typically evil, James-Bond-villan hacker whose slightest temper tantrum could destroy the computing world. "Most are under 18, male, brilliant and itching to create a high-tech plague that will wipe out reams of data as well as generate headlines." Headlines Jon Swartz seems willing to write!
Swartz also helped correct the record about where viruses come from. You see, experts believe viruses come from places all over the world, with just a couple of high-profile items emerging from the East European bloc. But that's not true. Swartz reveals most viruses "originated in Bulgaria and were primarily political messages that did not damage PCs." He also reminds us the Michelangelo virus first appeared in 1990. (The experts stand corrected.)
Swartz leaves readers with a telltale quote from Symantec's hacker-war veteran, Alex Haddox: "It's a long battle, but one we will not back away from." Earlier in the story, you learn why they won't give up the fight -- because it's profitable! "Symantec's Windows-based anti-virus software sales were $46.5 million last year..."
United Press Int'l (37 votes):
Never one to run away from a media fiasco, UPI issued a follow-up newswire about the second Hare virus trigger date scheduled for Sunday, 22 September. This report contained at least one major error in every paragraph! Highlights include:
- "The Hindustan Times reported Wednesday an Indian computer virus [sic] ... is expected to activate itself on Sept. 20 [sic]."
- "The virus ... will scramble files on hard disc drives when it strikes on Friday [sic], the newspaper said."
- "Computer data affected by the virus can be restored only by keying in a special code [sic] that remains secret, Naren Kumar, a noted Indian computer virus expert, said."
- "The virus is picked up each time a user downloads text or pictures [sic] from one of many [sic] sex-related Internet sites, Kumar said."
- "[Hare] is also difficult to detect because it evades the generation of anti-virus scanning systems currently available [sic], he said."
- "Experts could not say why the virus was designed to target only pornographic downloads [sic]."
- "Although [the virus] is India-based [sic] ... it has the potential to infect computers worldwide."
Rejected votes:
1 coworker affiliated with a nomineePlease note: some people failed to vote in all categories.
11 failed to provide a valid Internet address
1 "cemetery" ballot (voted in another's name)
3 duplicate ballots stuffed into the ballot box
55 blank ballots
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