20th Anniversary of Michelangelo Virus Scare

An anonymous reader writes "It's twenty years since the first big virus scare. According to security blogger Graham Cluley, who has written up his memories of the hard disk wiping virus, John McAfee predicted that around 5 million computers would be zapped by the virus on March 6th 1992. Of course, the truth was nothing like as bad — but the antivirus business was plagued forevermore by accusations of fear-mongering."

Comments

Fear mongering?

[girlintraining]

...but the antivirus business was plagued forevermore by accusations of fear-mongering."

Symantec's whole business model goes something like this: "Hey, that's a nice computer you have there. A shame if something were to... happen... to it." It's not an accusation, they're quite forward about it... try unsubscribing from their service once you have it. It's easier to just call the bank and say "cancel my card, close the account, burn the evidence." --- though you still have to figure out how to remove said leech software and disable all the damn warnings. Modern antivirus does not go quietly: It threatens to kill you while you're disabling it, like some sick scifi computer.... "Noooo... daaaaaavee.... I loooovvve yooooouu.. *bzzzrrrrt*"