FLU                       Version 1.20             Released June, 1989

                       by George R. Woodside

Familiarity with the appearance of the attacks of known viruses would
be helpful in recognizing when one is present. For that purpose, I
have provided the program "FLU". It is a demonstration program. It does
not contain any of the code present in any virus for the installation
of the virus, or the spreading of the virus. What it does contain is
the non-destructive attack code of several viruses. These attacks are
either audio or visual, so that there is evidence of the attack
occurring. There is no simulation of any of the virus attacks which
cause damage to disk data, since there is no way to recognize when such
an attack is occurring (and, of course, the purpose of the program is
to aid in recognizing the symptoms, not to destroy disks!).

"FLU" is absolutely safe. The program can be viewed as a simple
novelty, which does some strange display alterations. But by running
it, and becoming familiar with the symptoms it displays, you will be
capable of recognizing the characteristics of the attack of several
current ST viruses. 

Two of the simulations, the "BLOT" virus and the "SCREEN" virus, attack
in a nearly identical manner. They step on a small portion of the
screen. When speeded up to display the symptoms, they have the
appearance of drawing lines across the top and bottom of the screen.
However, when the attack occurs at the speed at which the virus really
operates, the attack would appear more like a small blot appearing on
the screen, since the screen would have most likely been altered or
redrawn by the application program between virus attacks.

The "FREEZE" virus is probably the most difficult of the
non-destructive viruses to recognize, since it is the most subtle. It
takes over the ST for an ever increasing period of time, causing a
gradual slowing the machine. Again, the demonstration runs at a
significantly higher speed than the real virus.

Running the program is very simple. It runs in any size system, and in
any resolution. When the program begins executing, it displays a simple
dialog box. Each button in the dialog bears the name of a different
virus, and one is the exit button.

Click on the button for any virus to execute the simulation of the
attack of that virus. A new dialog box will appear, explaining what the
attack looks like, and offering any instructions needed to return to
the main dialog. Many of the simulations execute until you press a key,
then they return to the selection dialog.

When you wish to exit, click on the exit button in the selection
dialog.

George R. Woodside       

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