EGABTR

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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]

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References

  1. ↑ Computer Language, Volume 4. 1987. Retrieved September 25, 2015.
  2. ↑ Kershner, Helene G. (1992). Computer Literacy. D. C. Heath. p. 240. ISBN   978-0669279986 . Retrieved September 24, 2015.
  3. 1 2 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.
  4. ↑ Emmerson, Andrew (January 28, 1988). "Phantoms of the operating system". New Scientist . Vol. 117 no. 1597. p. 69. Retrieved 23 September 2015.
  5. ↑ Omni, Volume 8. Omni Publications International. 1986. p. 35. Retrieved September 25, 2015.
  6. 1 2 Introduction to Computer Literacy . D. C. Heath Publishing Company. 1990. p.  399. ISBN   978-0669095609 . Retrieved September 25, 2015.
  7. ↑ Kane, Pamela; Hopkins, Andy (1993). The data recovery bible: preventing and surviving computer crashes. Brady Publishing. ISBN   978-1566860802 . Retrieved September 25, 2015.
  8. ↑ "Lots of warnings about EGABTR.EXE". www.matarese.com. Archived from the original on 27 September 2007.
  9. ↑ Malware History from BitDefender
  10. ↑ "VIRS0387". Archived from the original on 2006-08-26. Retrieved 2006-01-21.
  11. ↑ "Warning!". PC Magazine . Vol. 4 no. 15. July 23, 1985. p. 34. Retrieved 23 September 2015.
  12. ↑ Google Books results
  13. ↑ "Nation and World News". Chicago Tribune . August 16, 1985. Retrieved September 25, 2015.
  14. ↑ 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.


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