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grams developed by EDS. When it finds them, it prevents the computer user from saving his data – hence causing the loss of whatever he was working on.

By early 1988 a small but potentially lucrative industry was specializing in securing computers from attacks by viruses. Computer specialists offered their services as security consultants or sold dedicated computer software designed to track down and kill viruses. By 1988, despite Brain and Lehigh, despite the two Macintosh viruses and a score of other isolated virus incidents, there was little real evidence of the oft-hyped unstoppable plague of computer bugs, but it is understandable that writers of anti-viral software and others in the new security industry should have exaggerated the threat. They were like burglar alarm salesmen without any burglars about. They had to emphasize the potential of viruses; they needed to convince customers and the press that a storm of viruses was gathering, to be unleashed on defenceless computer users in the next weeks or months, or in the coming year.

The emotive term 'virus' helped their case. So did the willingness of the press to publish dubious statistics and unverified and unsourced stories of virus incidents – particularly the specialist computer press, then locked in circulation wars and looking for something out of the ordinary to write about. Viral plagues made good copy.

One of the earliest anti-viral programs for IBM PC-type computers was the work of a New York-based programmer, Ross Greenberg. He said that he had seen the virus threat coming 'for years'. His program was called Flu Shot.

During the summer of 1988 Greenberg was contacted by writer Ralph Roberts, who was researching a book about computer viruses. According to Roberts, Greenberg insisted he had 'about twenty viruses in quarantine'. When asked to identify them Greenberg told the writer: 'I don't give the little suckers names.' He did describe his 'favourite virus', which he said could randomly transpose two numbers on the screen. 'Sounds cute,' he was reported to have said, 'but could be dangerous if you're using Lotus 1-2-3 [a program used for accounting] to run a multi-million dollar company.'¹

In his book Roberts also describes his interviews with the newly