[plug] Re: [school-discuss] virus stats (was: persuading)

[Leon Brooks]

On Saturday 27 April 2002 19:51, Alex wrote:
> This page is incredibly
> helpful showing the 4000-some-odd Windoze virii, alongside the 2 or 3
> UNIX nasties.

According to the Encyclopaedia, of `over 30,000' viruses and worms, including 
jokes (2) and hoaxes (21), there are 5 for Linux, 13 `multiplatform' (of 
which one platform is almost invariably MS-Windows; in several cases all 
platforms are Windows or MS-Office, AFAICT 5^H2 of them touch Linux) and 2 
Java.

So, of `over 30,000' viruses, roughly 30,000 will work on Windows, many of 
them gratuitously, and roughly 9 will run on Linux, and generally need some 
kind of gross user stupidity by way of assistance. Sadly, that's not a scarce 
resource.

My favourite would have to be `The UNIX Virus':

    Hello - you have been infected by the UNIX virus! This virus works
    on the honour system. Please include this text in messages to each
    of your friends and randomly delete some files from your hard disk
    drive. aTdHvAaNnKcSe!

Cheers; Leon