Byte Bandit
Encyclopedia
Byte Bandit is a boot sector
computer virus
created for the Commodore Amiga
. It first appeared in January 1988, and was created by SCA.
It was one of the most feared Amiga viruses until the infamous Lamer Exterminator because not only did it spread from system to system automatically, it was also destructive.
Byte Bandit made no attempt to disguise itself as modern viruses, trojans, and worms do. While it naturally over-wrote the bootblock, it also hooked into the system, remaining reset-resident and causing system data corruption and system failures. The virus increments a copy counter every time it writes itself to a disk, which is in the text string "Virus by Byte Bandit in 9.87. Number of copys:" which also gives a date of September 1987 for the creation, as well as the assumed name of the programmer.
Boot sector
A boot sector or boot block is a region of a hard disk, floppy disk, optical disc, or other data storage device that contains machine code to be loaded into random-access memory by a computer system's built-in firmware...
computer virus
Computer virus
A computer virus is a computer program that can replicate itself and spread from one computer to another. The term "virus" is also commonly but erroneously used to refer to other types of malware, including but not limited to adware and spyware programs that do not have the reproductive ability...
created for the Commodore Amiga
Amiga
The Amiga is a family of personal computers that was sold by Commodore in the 1980s and 1990s. The first model was launched in 1985 as a high-end home computer and became popular for its graphical, audio and multi-tasking abilities...
. It first appeared in January 1988, and was created by SCA.
It was one of the most feared Amiga viruses until the infamous Lamer Exterminator because not only did it spread from system to system automatically, it was also destructive.
Byte Bandit made no attempt to disguise itself as modern viruses, trojans, and worms do. While it naturally over-wrote the bootblock, it also hooked into the system, remaining reset-resident and causing system data corruption and system failures. The virus increments a copy counter every time it writes itself to a disk, which is in the text string "Virus by Byte Bandit in 9.87. Number of copys:" which also gives a date of September 1987 for the creation, as well as the assumed name of the programmer.
External links
- http://www.sca.ch/ – Swiss Cracking Association's homepage
- http://agn-www.informatik.uni-hamburg.de/catalog/amiga/html/byteba7.htm – Detailed virus information.
- Byte Bandit-Virus description at the Amiga Virus Encyclopedia