Some information on the Michelangelo virus:

       "Michelangelo activates on March 6, at which time it will format
       the system hard disk by overwriting it with random characters from
       system memory."


(This description of the following virus is an extract from the very
fine VSUM hypertext program.  VSUM gives information on most known
viruses.)

          ===================================================


 Virus Name:  Michelangelo
 Aliases:
 Scan ID:     [Mich]
 V Status:    Common
 Discovered:  April, 1991
 Symptoms:    Disk directory damage; hard disk format; decrease in total
              system and available memory
 Origin:      Sweden or the Netherlands
 Eff Length:  N/A
 Type Code:   BRtX - Floppy and Hard Disk Partition Table Infector
 Detection Method:  ViruScan V80+, F-Prot 1.16+, IBM Scan 2.1+, VIRx 1.8+,
                    Novi 1.0.1+, Sweep 2.3.1+, AVTK 5.52A+, UTScan
 Removal Instructions:  CleanUp V80+, F-Prot 1.16+

 General Comments:
       The Michelangelo virus was first reported in April, 1991 in Sweden
       and the Netherlands.  The first usable sample of this virus was
       actually received in June, 1991.  Michelangelo is a memory resident
       infector of diskette boot sectors and the hard disk partition table.
       It is roughly based on the Stoned virus, though very different in
       its behavior.

       The Michelangelo virus becomes memory resident the first time the
       system is attempted to be booted with a Michelangelo infected disk.
       Regardless of whether this boot is successful, Michelangelo will
       become memory resident.  Total system and available free memory, as
       measured by the DOS CHKDSK program will typically decrease by
       2,048 bytes.  Michelangelo will be resident at the top of system
       memory but below the 640K DOS boundary. Interrupt 12's return will
       be moved to insure that Michelangelo in memory is not overwritten.

       Once Michaelangelo is memory resident, it will infect diskette boot
       sectors as diskettes as they are accessed.  It will also infect
       the hard disk partition table when the user attempts to access a
       file on the hard disk.

       On 360K 5.25" diskettes, the original boot sector will be moved by
       the virus to sector 11, the last sector in the root directory.  On
       1.2M 5.25" diskettes, the original boot sector will be relocated to
       sector 28, part of the root directory.  Since the original boot
       sector now resides in the root directory, any entries which happened
       to be in the overwritten sector of the root directory will be lost.
       sector 28, part of the root directory.  Since the original boot
       sector now resides in the root directory, any entries which happened
       to be in the overwritten sector of the root directory will be lost.

       Partition table infections will result in the original partition
       table having been moved to Side 0, Cylinder 0, Sector 7 on the
       hard disk.

       Michelangelo activates on March 6, at which time it will format the
       system hard disk by overwriting it with random characters from
       system memory.

          ===================================================

Be prepared!

The following files are available for download on this BBS:

        1. SCAN86-B.ZIP   Virus scanning software (to look for
                           virus infections) - McAfee Assoc
        2. NETSC86B.ZIP   Virus scanning software for DOS based
                           LAN file servers (Netware etc.)
                           - McAfee Assoc
        3. CLEAN86B.ZIP   Companion to SCAN86-B.ZIP that cleans
                           out the virus found by SCAN. - McAfee
                           Assoc
        4. VSHLD86B.ZIP   TSR that monitors program loads for
                           virus infection. - McAfee Assoc
        5. VSUMX201.ZIP   Origins and symptoms of most known
                           viruses.

NOTE:

These programs are Shareware and may require registration with
the authors. BE SURE to read the terms and conditions in the
program's documentation and ACT RESPONSIBLY!