EGABTR (EGA for enhanced graphics adapter),[1] sometimes pronounced "Eggbeater", was a Trojan horse program[2] that achieved some level of notoriety in the late 1980s and early 1990s.[3][4][5][6][7] Allegedly a graphics utility that would improve the quality of an EGA display, it actually was malware that deleted the file allocation tables on the hard drive.[8][9][3] This deletion was accompanied by a text message reading "Arf! Arf! Got you!".[10][6][11] Coverage about this virus has translated in languages such as German, Chinese and Indonesian.[12] Various sources disagree as to the exact wording.
In the 1980s, Richard Streeter, a CBS executive,[13] once downloaded the Trojan virus, learned about EGABTR after visiting electronic Bulletin boards, hoping to find something to improve his operating system and unknowingly downloaded the virus.[14]
References
edit- ^ Computer Language, Volume 4. 1987. Retrieved September 25, 2015.
- ^ Kershner, Helene G. (1992). Computer Literacy. D. C. Heath. p. 240. ISBN 978-0669279986. Retrieved September 24, 2015.
- ^ a b Poundstone, William (1989). Bigger Secrets: More Than 125 Things They Prayed You'd Never Find Out. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. p. 166. ISBN 978-0395530085. Retrieved September 25, 2015.
- ^ Emmerson, Andrew (January 28, 1988). "Phantoms of the operating system". New Scientist. Vol. 117, no. 1597. p. 69. Retrieved 23 September 2015.
- ^ Omni, Volume 8. Omni Publications International. 1986. p. 35. Retrieved September 25, 2015.
- ^ a b Introduction to Computer Literacy. D. C. Heath Publishing Company. 1990. p. 399. ISBN 978-0669095609. Retrieved September 25, 2015.
- ^ Kane, Pamela; Hopkins, Andy (1993). The data recovery bible: preventing and surviving computer crashes. Brady Publishing. ISBN 978-1566860802. Retrieved September 25, 2015.
- ^ "Lots of warnings about EGABTR.EXE". www.matarese.com. Archived from the original on 27 September 2007.
- ^ Malware History from BitDefender
- ^ "VIRS0387". Archived from the original on 2006-08-26. Retrieved 2006-01-21.
- ^ "Warning!". PC Magazine. Vol. 4, no. 15. July 23, 1985. p. 34. Retrieved 23 September 2015.
- ^ Google Books results
- ^ "Nation and World News". Chicago Tribune. August 16, 1985. Retrieved September 25, 2015.
- ^ Berke, Joseph H. (1988). The tyranny of malice: exploring the dark side of character and culture. Summit Books. p. 238. ISBN 978-0671497538. Retrieved September 25, 2015.
External links
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