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1994/04 Hong Kong - A Crossroads for Viruses

By Allan Dyer, Yui Kee Company

Hong Kong's position as the gateway to China and a major trading centre gives it some importance in the spread of viruses internationally. Our recent visit to China clearly showed that there are viruses there that have never been seen by Western virus researchers, and there is circumstantial evidence that some recent viruses that were first found in Hong Kong and have since been seen internationally originated in China. Additionally, there is a small group of local virus writers, who mainly seem to be writing variants of Jerusalem. But it is the international trade links that make Hong Kong a potential virus distribution source. Large numbers of pre-formatted diskettes are exported from China. Together with motherboards, add-in cards and machines which are assembled or packaged (with driver diskettes) here.

Some examples will help to illustrate this:

The Nice virus, written in Hong Kong, was first found circulating in Hong Kong BBSs in January, 1994. Two weeks later, a minor variant was found in Northern Scandinavia and traced to a set of video driver diskettes that had been copied from an infected master diskette in Hong Kong.

The _1099 virus was first found in a Hong Kong company which has a factory in China in January, 1994. Other samples of the virus were also found in Hong Kong, only in companies with Chinese connections, but the virus was clearly becoming common in the Territory. At the end of August, 1994, the virus was detected on VGA display driver diskettes sent from Hong Kong in Norway. By looking at recent samples and anti- virus programs from China, it is clear that _1099 is well- known there.

These viruses are not particularly virulent (the Nice virus overwrites it's victim, so it is likely to get noticed fast), but they have achieved international distribution by infecting an exporter. It is necessary to hunt down new viruses in individual countries actively, for such viruses can quickly jump to international fame. Viruses are already using international communications, it is up to us to make effective use of them too to combat viruses.


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