* Crossposted from: blinktalk
     I thought some people reading this forum may want to know the
     following from the 1996-1997 American Printing House disk catalog.
     It comes from the readme.txt file on the green colored disk.
          Steve
! VIRUS WARNING !
We are very sorry to report that we have discovered a virus on the APH
Products Catalog, 1996-1997, Disk Edition that you may have recently
received. This disk you are reading now is a virus-free copy of the same
Product Catalog. Please read on for further details.
How to Tell Which Disk Is Infected
The infected disk of the Product Catalog has a label which begins with the
print words "CATALOG ON DISK, APH Catalog of Products for People Who
Are Visually Impaired or Blind, 1996-97" and the braille words "APH
products catalog 96-97." The infected disk is colored beige. IF YOU HAVE
THIS DISK, PLEASE DISCARD IT IMMEDIATELY!
The virus-free disk of the Product Catalog has a label which begins with
the print words "VIRUS-FREE COPY, APH Catalog of Products for People
Who Are Visually Impaired or Blind, 1996-97" and the braille words "virus-
free APH Products cat 96-97". The virus-free disk is green in color.
Details About the Virus
The virus infecting the beige Product Catalog disk is called "FORM_A". It is
found on the boot sector of the disk. This means that the virus will not
infect your machine if the Product Catalog disk is inserted when your PC
is already booted up. However, if you attempt to boot your computer with
the infected Product Catalog disk already in your floppy drive, your
machine will become infected.
The following information about FORM_A was obtained via the Internet
from Data Fellows, Ltd. Virus Information Pages,
http://www.datafellows.fi
 "This is a non-remarkable virus from Switzerland, but it is very common.
"Form is able to infect hard disks as well as floppies, and stores the rest
of itself, as well as the original boot sector on the last track of the hard
disk or in clusters marked as "bad" on a diskette.
"Unlike most other boot sector viruses, Form infects the DOS boot sector
on hard drives instead of the Master Boot Record.
"Form is only able to infect a hard disk when you try to boot the machine
from an infected diskette. At this time Form infects the boot sector, and
after that it will go resident to high DOS memory during every boot-up
from the hard disk. Once Form gets resident to memory, it will infect
practically all non-write protected diskettes used in the machine. Form
will create bad sectors on disks it infects.
"Form activates on the 18th of any month; on that day it will cause a
'click' from the PC speaker every time a key is pressed. On most machines
this activation routine will not be heard, because the routine will fail if a
keyboard driver (typically keyb.com) is loaded.
"Form is one of the most widespread viruses in existence."
Note: The above quoted information is copyright 1996, Data Fellows. Used
with permission.
How to Eradicate the Virus
Whether or not you have attempted to boot your machine with the infected
Product Catalog disk, we suggest that you immediately run an anti-virus
program to check your hard drive and floppy disks. We suggest that you use
an anti-viral program with which you are comfortable. Some suggested
programs are: 
	-- Microsoft (R) Anti-Virus, which is included with MS-DOS 6.22--at
the DOS prompt, type "msav". Microsoft Customer Service: 800-426-9400
	-- McAffe Associates (R) Scan. McAffe: 408-988-3832
Please follow the instructions for your particular anti-viral program on
how to identify and remove this virus.
Note: This virus has not been found on any other promotional APH disk
publications. Examples of these clean publications include:
	-- APH Catalog of Accessible Books, 1996-97
	-- Micro Materials Update, Disk Editions
	-- PC Typer Demo Disk
If You Have Questions
If you have any further questions regarding this virus, please call APH
Customer Service toll free at 1-800-223-1839. We regret any
inconvenience this infected disk may have caused.
*******
     stevez@cycat.com         Fidonet:  Steve Zielinski (1:363/187)
... Be what you is 'cause if you be what you ain't, you ain't what you is.
___ Blue Wave/386 v2.30
--- MjrFIDO 3.25
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