EGABTR

EGABTR (EGA for enhanced graphics adapter),[1] sometimes pronounced "Eggbeater", was a Trojan horse program[2] that achieved some level of notoriety in the late 1980s and early 1990s.[3][4][5][6][7] Allegedly a graphics utility that would improve the quality of an EGA display, it actually was malware that deleted the file allocation tables on the hard drive.[8][9][3] This deletion was accompanied by a text message reading "Arf! Arf! Got you!".[10][6][11] Coverage about this virus has translated in languages such as German, Chinese and Indonesian.[12] Various sources disagree as to the exact wording.

In the 1980s, Richard Streeter, a CBS executive,[13] once downloaded the Trojan virus, learned about EGABTR after visiting electronic Bulletin boards, hoping to find something to improve his operating system and unknowingly downloaded the virus.[14]

References
  1. Computer Language, Volume 4. 1987. Retrieved September 25, 2015.
  2. Kershner, Helene G. (1992). Computer Literacy. D. C. Heath. p. 240. ISBN 978-0669279986. Retrieved September 24, 2015.
  3. Poundstone, William (1989). Bigger Secrets: More Than 125 Things They Prayed You'd Never Find Out. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. p. 166. ISBN 978-0395530085. Retrieved September 25, 2015.
  4. Emmerson, Andrew (January 28, 1988). "Phantoms of the operating system". New Scientist. Vol. 117, no. 1597. p. 69. Retrieved 23 September 2015.
  5. Omni, Volume 8. Omni Publications International. 1986. p. 35. Retrieved September 25, 2015.
  6. Introduction to Computer Literacy. D. C. Heath Publishing Company. 1990. p. 399. ISBN 978-0669095609. Retrieved September 25, 2015.
  7. Kane, Pamela; Hopkins, Andy (1993). The data recovery bible: preventing and surviving computer crashes. Brady Publishing. ISBN 978-1566860802. Retrieved September 25, 2015.
  8. "Lots of warnings about EGABTR.EXE". www.matarese.com. Archived from the original on 27 September 2007.
  9. Malware History from BitDefender
  10. "VIRS0387". Archived from the original on 2006-08-26. Retrieved 2006-01-21.
  11. "Warning!". PC Magazine. Vol. 4, no. 15. July 23, 1985. p. 34. Retrieved 23 September 2015.
  12. Google Books results
  13. "Nation and World News". Chicago Tribune. August 16, 1985. Retrieved September 25, 2015.
  14. Berke, Joseph H. (1988). The tyranny of malice: exploring the dark side of character and culture. Summit Books. p. 238. ISBN 978-0671497538. Retrieved September 25, 2015.


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