
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, March 22, 1990                   TAG: 9003222666
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A/2   EDITION: EVENING 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: RALEIGH, N.C.                                 LENGTH: Short

COMPUTER VIRUS HITS N.C. STATE

North Carolina State's computer labs have been hit by a virus that is leaving students smoking over its message.

"Your computer has been stoned. Legalize marijuana."

The virus is known as "Stoned." It first popped up in Wellington, New Zealand in 1988 and slowly has been wreaking havoc on computers across the world. On the North Carolina State campus, the virus has wiped out some students' work in computer labs.

"It has been nightmarish," said Tracy Carver, a lab assistant in the Humanities Computer Lab, where "Stoned" became such a menace that the lab had to shut down for a day and a half this past week.

Computer labs across campus are requiring users to check their floppy disks at the door so they can be scanned for "Stoned" to make sure it is kept under control.

Computer viruses like "Stoned" are programs that copy themselves between computers and destroy files, overload the system or otherwise irritate users.

More than 70 such viruses are known to be circulating worldwide, with points of origin as far-flung as Jerusalem (birthplace of a virus that deletes files at random on Friday the 13th) and the Netherlands (first home to the "Holland Girl Virus" that provides victims with the phone number of a girl named Sylvia after the damage has been done.)

"This is a perverse form of intellectual sabotage," said Michael Vasu, director of the social sciences computer lab. "The only purpose to write a virus is to destroy. You have someone with a high degree of technical competence who needs a basic course in ethics."

by CNB