Some Common PC-DOS Viruses and What They Mean To You1.6 The Sunday VirusThe Sunday virus is closely related to the 1813; the author of the Sunday clearly started with a copy of the 1813 virus and made a number of changes to it. Despite its similarity to the 1813, the Sunday virus is much less common. Like the 1813, the virus loads into memory the first time an infected program is run, and remains in memory until power-off or reboot, infecting any programs that are executed. The virus contains code that is designed to erase files and display a message if the day of the week is Sunday (and the year is not 1989), but at least in the most common variant of the virus, the code has a bug, and is never actually executed. The Sunday virus does not display "black holes", does not slow down infected machines, and does not multiply-infect EXE files.
1.6.1 SpreadBecause the Sunday virus is so similar to the 1813, it will spread through the same channels as the 1813. Shared machines, shared diskettes, shared programs, and LAN servers are all key points in restricting the spread of this class of virus.
1.6.2 SymptomsThe Sunday virus is somewhat less likely to be noticed than the 1813, because the more obvious symptoms have been removed. The most common variant of the virus does not erase files, cause blank or scrolling boxes, slow down infected machines, or cause EXE files to grow repeatedly. The symptoms that remain, including one-time growth of files and the occasional malfunctioning EXE program, are less likely to be noticed.
1.6.3 ProtectionAlthough it is newer than the 1813, the Sunday virus is well-known and easy to detect, and should be caught by any good anti-virus program.[ Top of Page | Previous Page | Next Page | Table of Contents ] |