Memories of the Chernobyl virus

Today is the 25th anniversary of the explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, which resulted in the world’s worst nuclear accident.

Vigils have been held to commemorate the disaster, where an explosion and fire released a large cloud of radioactive contamination into the air, spreading over much of Western Russia and Europe.

No doubt the anniversary has extra resonance following recent events in Japan, at the Fukushima nuclear plant.

However, the relevance of today’s date for Naked Security is the virus that bear’s Chernobyl’s name.

The CIH virus, also known as Chernobyl, was first discovered in 1998, and quickly became one of the most commonly encountered viruses in the wild.

Although never as widespread as other malware of the time such as the …

Read more in my article on the Naked Security website.

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Graham Cluley is a veteran of the cybersecurity industry, having worked for a number of security companies since the early 1990s when he wrote the first ever version of Dr Solomon's Anti-Virus Toolkit for Windows. Now an independent analyst, he regularly makes media appearances and is an international public speaker on the topic of cybersecurity, hackers, and online privacy. Follow him on Twitter, Mastodon, Threads, Bluesky, or drop him an email.

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