Today in Technology History
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March 6
The Renaissance artist Michelangelo was born on March 6, 1475. A decade ago, on the 517th anniversary of his birth, a computer virus named "Michelangelo" was poised to strike.
Computer viruses were not a new phenomenon, but they had mostly been confined to mainframes and other industrial computers. By the early 1990s, the age of the personal computer was well underway, so the risk seemed greater.
In April 1991, a new computer virus was detected in Sweden. It was a "boot sector virus" that would stay dormant on an IBM-compatible computer until the computer's clock indicated the date was March 6 (of any year). On that date, the virus would destroy files stored on hard drives and floppy disks. Since March 6 happened to be Michelangelo's birthday, the discoverer of the virus named it after the artist.
By early 1992, news reports began to suggest that the virus was widespread among PC users. Michelangelo was discovered on computers owned by universities, companies and government agencies around the world. One computer maker admitted having inadvertently shipped hundreds and possibly thousands of infected computers. Frenzied news reports estimated that millions of machines were in danger.
But when March 6, 1992 finally arrived, only a few thousand computers around the world were damaged. Maybe all the hype had made people take sufficient precautions, or perhaps Michelangelo was never a major threat.
The air was thick with puns in the aftermath of the Michelangelo panic. "As computer viruses go, Michelangelo may not have been a masterpiece," wrote one reporter. "The much-feared Michelangelo computer virus proved to be more of a common cold than the Black Death for personal computers," wrote another. Such bad puns have been a staple of subsequent virus scares.
The creator of the Michelangelo virus was never discovered.
Related links:
Click here to read a critical analysis of the Michelangelo panic.
Click here to read a technical description of the Michelangelo virus.
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