mshamel@tachost.af.mil (SMSgt Michael L. Shamel) (02/13/90)
The following article is from the February 5, 1990 addition of
COMPUTERWORLD. The FBI apparently caught the guy who spread the
Aids Virus Disk in England. Although this is more of a Trojan
Horse than a Virus story, I thought the group might be
interested.
SUSPECT ARRESTED IN AIDS DISK FRAUD CASE
Acting on a warrant issued by a London magistrate, agents of
the Federal Bureau of Investigation arrested Dr. Joseph Lewis
Popp last Thursday for his alleged role in a scheme to bilk
computer users who used a program that he created.
Popp, an U.S. citizen, is alleged to be the author of an
"AIDS Information Introductory Diskette" that was mailed
unsolicited to thousands of MS-DOS computer users in Europe,
Africa and Australia last December.
Concealed within the program, which was designed to evaluate
a person's likelihood of contraction the Acquired Immune
Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) virus, was a Trojan horse that moved
some files stored on hard disks into hidden directories and
encrypted others.
"The effect for the nontechnical user is devastating because
it appears as though everything is gone," said Jim Bates, a
computer consultant in Leicester, England, who has dissected the
program.
A license agreement packaged with the AIDS disk warned users
that the program would adversely affect programs on their
personal computer's hard disk drives unless they agreed to lease
the program with 365 uses for $189, or for the "lifetime of your
hard disk" for $398. Users were directed to send a check to an
address in Panama City, Panama. It has been estimated that
between 23,000 and 27,000 disks were mailed to unsuspecting
users, according to Bates. There have been no reports of the
programs's arrival in the U.S.
English law enforcement authorities issued a warrant for
Popp's arrest on Jan. 15 for allegedly violating a 1968 blackmail
and extortion statute, said assistant U.S. Attorney Gary Arbeznik
in Cleveland.
Popp, 39, is being held without bail following a bond
hearing last Friday. It is not known whether he will fight
extradition (hearings are expected to be concluded within the
next 60 days).
Popp, who has a PH.D. in anthropology, is believed to have
once worked for the World Health Organization (WHO), whose
members were among those who received the AIDS disk.
A WHO spokesman in Washington, D.C. said that Popp is not
currently employed by the organization.