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APPROACHING ZERO

December of that year it was found at the Canadian Computer Show, where it was running amok on the PC displays. Invader is an exceptionally sophisticated version of Jerusalem. It would infect a target computer's hard disk, diskettes and program files. Its payload was devastating: it would zap data stored on disk (or diskette) to the sound of an exploding bomb whenever a particular, quite common, piece of drafting software — called Autocad — was loaded.

Invader was part of the new generation of viruses: destructive, malicious and clever. Since 1988 virus techniques have improved dramatically, as the number of bugs has grown exponentially. Their infection strategies have become more effective (which means they have better chance of travelling); they exploit obscure functions of computers to evade detection; they can trash data; in some cases, they can zero out large-scale computer networks.

The early viruses could cause damage, but this was often by accident. The new strains are programmed to be destructive. Some are demonic, frenzied, as if the virus writer was driven by a personal animus.

On 15 January 1991 the principal bank on the Mediterranean island of Malta was attacked by a particularly vicious bug. The first warning of the virus was a message that popped up suddenly on the computer screen:

DISK DESTROYER – A SOUVENIR OF MALTA
I have just DESTROYED the FAT on your Disk!!
However, I have kept a copy in RAM, and I’m giving you
a last chance to restore your precious data.
WARNING: IF YOU RESET NOW ALL YOUR DATA
WILL BE LOST FOREVER!!
Your data depends on a game of JACKPOT
CASINO DE MALTE JACKPOT
+L+       +?+       +C+
CREDITS: 5
‘ANY KEY TO PLAY’

The virus was, in essence, inviting operators to gamble with the data on their hard disks. It had captured the FAT, the File Allocation Table. Despite its unprepossessing name, the FAT is one of the most

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