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| Common name | Alcon |
|---|---|
| Technical name | Alcon |
| Aliases | RSY, Kendesm, Ken&Desmond, Ether |
| Family | N/A |
| Classification | Virus |
| Type | DOS |
| Subtype | Boot virus |
| Isolation | 1997 |
| Point of isolation | Europe |
| Point of origin | Unknown |
| Author(s) | Unknown |
Alcon, or RSY (which is more or less as commonly used of a name as Alcon), is a computer virus that was discovered to be spreading in Europe in 1997. It is a boot virus.
Alcon is a standard boot sector virus that spreads via floppies. Instead of the MBR, it infects the DBR, making some antivirus programs miss it.
A master boot record (MBR) is a special type of boot sector at the very beginning of partitioned computer mass storage devices like fixed disks or removable drives intended for use with IBM PC-compatible systems and beyond. The concept of MBRs was publicly introduced in 1983 with PC DOS 2.0.
Alcon contains no notable symptoms beyond one extremely damaging one, which is overwriting random information. Assuming that the overwrites are subtle, this may result in significant compounding data overtime, as Alcon is a slow damager.
Alcon contains the text "R.SY".
Alcon was listed as being spreading by the WildList from April 1998 to July 1999. F-Secure lists it as having been common in Europe throughout 1997. Like most boot viruses, it is near extinct, although it was certainly in the last wave of boot viruses, so cases involving Alcon may be false positives, but may also be due to older, unused infected disks resurfacing.
Alcon's most common alias is RSY, based on inclusions in the virus code. Other aliases include Kendesm, Ken&Desmond, and Ether. It is unknown where these names are derived from.
This virus is unrelated to W32/Alcon.
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