AIDS (Trojan horse)

PC Cyborg Trojan
Message after activation of AIDS
Malware details
Technical nameAids Info Disk/PC Cyborg Trojan
AliasesAIDS!Trojan, Aidsinfo. A trojan, Aidsinfo. B trojan, Cyborg, Trj/AidsInfo. A, Trojan. AidsInfo.a, Trj/AidsInfo. B, Trojan. AidsInfo.b, Trojaids!Trojan, Love virus
TypeDOS
SubtypeDOS scrambler
ClassificationTrojan
FamilyAIDS Trojan
Isolation date1989
OriginUnited States
AuthorDr. Joseph Popp

AIDS, also known as Aids Info Drive or PC Cyborg Trojan, is a DOS trojan horse whose payload mungs and encrypts the names of all directories on drive C:. It was developed by Dr. Joseph Popp (1950–2006), an evolutionary biologist with a doctorate from Harvard. The virus was isolated in 1989.