Chernobyl

The Chernobyl virus is an infection that contains a devastating payload. When executed, this virus has the ability to completely damage most, or all of the files it infects. This is the first known virus that has the ability to not only corrupt system files, but damage hardware devices as well. The viral strain also attempts to completely ease the hard drive and overwrite the computer’s BIOS. First signs of the Chernobyl virus were detected in 1998 - it’s payload was first triggered on April 16, 1999, a day which marked the 13th anniversary of the disaster that occurred at the Chernobyl nuclear reactor. While computer users in the United States and Europe were victimized, this virus inflicted most of its damage in Asia and several Middle Eastern countries. The Chernobyl strain is actually a variant of the CIH virus, often called the space filler virus. Chernobyl and similar variations are known for their ability to claim space on a computer’s hard drive and prevent anti-virus applications from running.