Michelangelo 1996: Allan Dyer of Yui Kee Company Ltd Reports from Hong Kong
There were very few Michelangelo activation reports world-wide this year. The Michelangelo virus activates every year on March 6th, overwriting the beginning of the hard drive. However, the South China Morning Post news reported in March that Martin Lee Chu-Ming, chairman of the Democratic Party of Hong Kong, lost "every speech, newspaper article, press release, legal brief or other utterance in English made by Mr Lee since the middle of 1994" because the Michelangelo virus had destructively activated on his machine. "Some data has been recovered and there are some backups, but much is expected to be lost forever".
PC World Hong Kong chooses F-PROT as best buy
Once again, F-PROT Professional received a "Best Buy" award, this time in PC World Hong Kong's March review of anti-virus software. F-PROT had the best detection rate against a test set of 2223 viruses, and was also praised for ease-of use and documentation.
Microsoft distributes the Sampo virus by accident
Microsoft accidentally distributed approximately 1500 diskettes infected with the Sampo boot sector virus (see Update Bulletin 2.16) at a recent Microsoft Business Solutions Conference in Hong Kong. The diskettes contained the Microsoft Internet Explorer 2.0 web browser. The infection took place at the diskette duplication company, and Microsoft will replace the infected diskettes.