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- xThe INIT 29 Virus
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- The INIT 29 virus first appeared in late 1988. We do not know much about
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- its origin. A second minor variant appeared in March, 1994. There are no
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- significant difference between the two strains. The original strain is
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- called “INIT 29 A”. The variant is called “INIT 29 B”.
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- INIT 29 is extremely virulent. It spreads very rapidly. Unlike Scores and
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- nVIR, you do not have to run an application for it to become infected. Also,
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- unlike Scores and nVIR, INIT 29 can and will infect almost any file,
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- including applications, system files, and document files. Document files
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- are infected, but they are not contagious. The virus can only spread via
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- system files and application files.
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- INIT 29 has one side effect which reveals its presence. If you try to
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- insert a locked floppy disk on a system infected by INIT 29, you will get
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- the following alert:
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- The disk “xxxxx” needs minor repairs.
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- Do you want to repair it?
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- If you see this alert whenever you insert a locked floppy, it is a good
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- indication that your system might be infected by INIT 29.
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- As with Scores and nVIR, INIT 29 does not intentionally try to do any
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- damage other than spread itself. Nevertheless, it can cause problems. In
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- particular, some people have reported problems printing on systems
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- infected with INIT 29. We have also experienced many system crashes,
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- problems with MultiFinder under System 6, and incompatibilities with
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- several startup documents on systems infected with INIT 29.
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- One of the viral resources added to infected files by INIT 29 has the
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- resource type “INIT” and the resource ID 29, after which the virus was
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- named.
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