Anti-virus business

For several years, the anti-virus industry has anticipated that somebody might turn the distribution of computer viruses into a money-making enterprise. The first glimmer of such a trend began as early as 1987, with the lunch of Ralph Burger’s book computer viruses: A High tech Disease, which featured live virus code. Soon after, others began to cash in, and there are now several different books in a similar vein.

     The next step in the process was the lunch of mark Ludwig’s magazine Computer Virus Developments Quarterly. Claiming to a publication aimed at virus-aware MIS manager, the magazine included material which would help a reasonably inexperienced programmer develop his own virus code.

    The most recent step in this chain of events is the publication of Ludwig’s $100 (RS 3200) CD-ROM, blandly titled The Collection, Outlaws from America’s Wild West. This disc represents the largest collection of virus information ever made available to a wide audience.

     The Ludwig collection poses many problems for the industry; the greatest of these is that, with large amounts of virus code available, it is likely that an upturn in the number of variants of particular viruses may occur. How the industry and the computing community chooses to deal with this CD-ROM is a subject open to discussion, but if action needs to be taken, it needs to be taken soon.