The archive / Technology and the internet
1992 · Worldwide
The computer virus that will wipe five million PCs!
The Michelangelo virus
Panic meter
The verdict
Experts warned that millions of computers would be wiped on 6 March 1992. A few thousand were hit.
Reality meter
What was said?
The Michelangelo virus was programmed to wipe hard drives on 6 March, the artist's birthday. In the run-up to the date in 1992, antivirus vendors went to the media with estimates of up to five million infected computers, and newspapers and television channels around the world warned of catastrophe.
The verdict: what happened next?
On 6 March, only a few thousand computers, perhaps as many as 20,000, were actually hit. Some argue that the warnings prompted people to protect themselves; others that it was an early example of the security industry crying wolf.
Either way, the upshot was that antivirus software sold out, and the term "media virus" took on a whole new meaning.
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