Ping Pong Virus

Virus Name: Ping Pong Aliases: Bouncing Ball, Boot, Bouncing Dot, Italian, Italian-A, Vera Cruz V Status: Common Discovered: March, 1988 Symptoms: Graphic display (see text); TSR; BSC Origin: Eff Length: N/A Type Code: BRsF - Resident Boot Sector Infector Detection Method: ViruScan, F-Prot, AVTK, NAV, Sweep, IBMAV, NAVDX, VAlert, PCScan, ChAV Removal Instructions: MDisk, F-Prot, NAV, or DOS SYS command General Comments: The Ping Pong virus is a boot sector virus which was first reported in March 1988. The original Ping Pong virus only infects Floppy Disks. Later variants of this virus also infect the hard disk boot sector as well. When the virus activates, which is on a random basis, a bouncing ball or dot appears on the screen. This display can only be stopped through a system reboot. No other damage is apparently done. The original Ping Pong virus is extinct, though the hard disk variant, Ping Pong-B listed below, is a common MS-DOS virus. Known variant(s) of Ping Pong are: Ping Pong-B: A later variant of the Ping Pong virus which can infect hard disk boot sectors. Origin: Unknown May, 1988. Ping Pong-C: Similar to Ping Pong-B, this variant does not have the bouncing ball screen effect. Origin: Argentina June, 1990.