Chernobyl blasts Radio Napa

By Andrew Adamides

THE INFAMOUS Chernobyl computer virus has made its presence felt in Cyprus over the past few days, but damage fortunately seems to have been minimal.

The virus, also known as the space-filler virus, attacks every year on the anniversary of the Russian Chernobyl disaster on April 26, 1986, making Monday this year’s D-day.

Although computers operated by government departments and major financial institutions escaped unscathed, a local computer company reported that it had had “quite a few cases” of the virus attacking both home and business computers.

Among the more high-profile companies hit by the bug was the popular Radio Napa, which was sent offline for three days by Chernobyl.

“It was fine on Sunday, but on Monday morning, everything was gone,” the station’s Nathan Morley said. Fortunately, the station’s studio is not computerised, and so broadcasting was unaffected.

The Chernobyl virus is completely ruthless, wiping all data from a computer’s hard-disk. Once the information is gone, there is no way to get it back, but a computer with an anti-virus programme will detect Chernobyl and destroy it before it’s too late.

And while the official Chernobyl virus only strikes on April 26, computer- users are warned that other versions of it can strike on the 26th of any month.

Elsewhere in the world, especially in Turkey, government and bank computers were attacked by the virus causing widespread damage.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.