Myth: BBSs Internet, shareware spread most viruses

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MYTH: "BBSs, the Internet, and shareware programs spread most viruses"

Reality:

Here's another scary myth, this one spouted as gospel by many "pseudo-experts" who claim to know how viruses spread. "The truth," said then-PC Magazine publisher Bill Machrone, "is that all major viruses [up to late-1988] were transmitted by [retail] packages and private mail systems, often in universities."

What Machrone said back then applies even today. Indeed, a late-1996 column of his says "I've been downloading files for more than 15 years, and not only have I never gotten an infected file from shareware, I don't know anyone who has, either."

Hundreds of retail companies have admitted spreading infected master disks to hundreds of thousands of customers since 1988 -- compared to only dozens of shareware authors who spread viruses on master disks to a few thousand customers since 1990. Retail companies started accidentally distributing viruses to their customers a full two years before shareware authors.

Machrone went on in 1988 to say "bulletin boards and shareware authors work extraordinarily hard at policing themselves to keep viruses out." Reputable sysops check every file for Trojan horses; international networks help spread the word about dangerous files. So, yes, you should beware software obtained from BBSs and shareware authors -- but you should also beware retail software found on store shelves.

By the way, many stores routinely re-shrinkwrap returned software and put it on the shelf again. Do you know for sure you alone touched those master disks?

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