Byte Bandit is a
boot sector computer virus
A computer virus is a type of computer program that, when executed, replicates itself by modifying other computer programs and inserting its own code. If this replication succeeds, the affected areas are then said to be "infected" with a compu ...
created for the
Amiga
Amiga is a family of personal computers introduced by Commodore International, Commodore in 1985. The original model is one of a number of mid-1980s computers with 16- or 32-bit processors, 256 KB or more of RAM, mouse-based GUIs, and sign ...
personal computer. It first appeared in January 1988.
In contrast to the feared Amiga viruses like the infamous
Lamer Exterminator
Lamer Exterminator is a computer virus created for the Amiga. It was first detected in Germany in October 1989. It is a boot block virus contained in the first 1024 bytes of the disk.
It is notable as the first virus known to be defensive. It hoo ...
and
SADDAM
Saddam Hussein ( ; ar, صدام حسين, Ṣaddām Ḥusayn; 28 April 1937 – 30 December 2006) was an Iraqi politician who served as the fifth president of Iraq from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003. A leading member of the revolution ...
, Byte Bandit was not destructive. It just spread automatically from system to system.
Byte Bandit made no attempt to disguise itself as modern viruses, trojans, and worms do. While it naturally over-wrote the bootblock, it also hooked into the system, remaining reset-resident and causing system data corruption and system failures. The virus increments a copy counter every time it writes itself to a disk, which is in the text string "Virus by Byte Bandit in 9.87. Number of copys:" which also gives a date of September 1987 for the creation, as well as the assumed name of the programmer.
External links
* http://www.sca.ch/ – Swiss Cracking Association's homepage
Byte Bandit-Virus descriptionat the Amiga Virus Encyclopedia
{{malware-stub
Amiga viruses
Hacking in the 1980s