The INIT-M Virus

The INIT-M virus was discovered at Dartmouth College, in April, 1993.

INIT-M is a malicious virus.  It is designed to trigger on any Friday the 13th.  The virus severely damages a large number of folders and files.  File names are changed to random 8 character strings.  Folder names are changed to random 1-8 character strings.  This changes the icons associated with the files and destroys the relationship between programs and their documents.  File creation and modification dates are changed to Jan. 1, 1904.  In some cases, one file or folder on a disk may be renamed "Virus MindCrime".  In some very rare circumstances, the virus may also delete a file or files.

The virus can also sometimes cause problems with the proper display of windows.

The virus only spreads and attacks under System 7.0 or later.  It does not spread or attack under System 6.  

The virus infects all kinds of file, including extensions, applications, preference files, and document files.

The virus creates a file names "FSV Prefs" in the Preferences folder.

The damage caused by the INIT-M virus is very similar to that caused by the INIT 1984  virus.  Despite the similarity, the two viruses are very different in other respects, and should not be confused.

The CODE 1 Virus

The CODE 1 virus was discovered at several colleges and universities on the east coast of the United States in November, 1993.

The virus infects both applications and the System file.  It does not infect document files.  It spreads under both System 6 and System 7.

The virus renames the system hard disk to "Trent Saburo" whenever an infected Mac is restarted on any October 31.  Although he virus does not contain any other intentionally destructive code, it can cause crashes and other problems.

The INIT 9403 Virus

The INIT 9403 virus was discovered in Italy in March, 1994

Unlike most of the other Mac viruses, INIT 9403 is very destructive.  After a certain number of other files have been infected, the virus will erase disks connected to the system; it attempts to destroy disk information on all connected hard drive (drives greater then 16 Mb) and attempts to completely erase the boot volume.

The virus only spreads under the Italian version of the Mac system.

It appears that the virus was initially spread by an altered version of some pirated software.  The software, when run, installs the virus on the affected system.

Once present, the virus alters the Finder file, and may insert copies of itself in various compaction, compression, and archive programs.  These infected files then spread the virus to other Macintoshes.

The virus spreads under both System 6 and System 7.