FRIDAY THE 13TH - COMPUTER VIRUS

Friday the 13th is considered to be unlucky day in Western superstition. It is also termed as Black Friday. For computer users, especially tech experts, Friday the 13th is also notable date because of the infamous malware.

Friday The 13th is one of the oldest viruses. Some users believe that it may be extinct. However, some virus researchers still have some copies in hand. The original virus is 419 bytes long, but several minor variants are known, with slightly different lengths like the Lehigh virus.

History

Friday the 13th malware is also known as virus Jerusalem. It is said to be created in Israel in 1988 to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the creation of the Jewish state. Some people are of the opinion that the virus was designed by someone religious or superstitious.

The virus was simply activated when the calendar hit Friday the 13th. All the programs and files that were being used would be infected and eliminated.

There was no  specific method to spread the virus, but it was done through then normal systems like floppies, CD-ROM or as email attachments.

In the late 1980s, it was the leading virus attacking computers around the world.

How It Worked

• Infects files with extensions of COM, EXE or SYS
• Increases the file size whenever the file is executed
• Reduces the memory available on the computer
• Causes your computer system to slow down

Variants

Virus-B
A variant where the destructive part has been disabled and which was distributed for demonstration purposes.

ENET 37
This 613 byte virus contains the text:

ENET N§37 Virus benigno - Por EDGE BAND! Realizado por un alumno del Enet 37 (?) 25/5/92 ..Hmmm.. Te parece usar la computadora un Domingo? Presiona una tecla.

Other variants of the Jerusalem virus included additional effects, such as cryptic slogans populating the command line interface. While other versions restricted the execution of programs during specific days of the week, such as Saturday and Sunday.

Slowly, the virus stopped causing problems for newer operating systems. During the late 80's it contributed to some serious computer crashes around the world.

 Sources: techopedia, pandasecurity, f-secure