Selected viruses, spyware, and other threats: sorted alphabetically

Ripper is an encrypted, boot, stealth virus. It takes 2KB in memory and 2 sectors on a disk. On a hard disk the virus alters MBR and in addition locates the body into the 8th sector; on diskettes it locates the body into the boot sector and into the last sectors of the root directory. If the virus is active in memory it protects its body from “uninvited” eyes. The virus was given name by one of the text strings in its encrypted body.

(C) 1992 Jack Ripper

That name was used by the infamous murder of prostitutes in London. The “funny part” of the virus really “represents” that name. It belongs to the most disgusting things you can meet in the world of viruses. From the moment of infection the virus checks the system timer and when the ten lowest bytes equal zero (on a common PC that happens once in about 56 seconds) it swaps over two words in the disk write buffer. Because the destructive activity of the virus is so slow and inconspicuous the user usually finds out the damage done on his programs and data when already also the backups are damaged.

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