A BRITISH software firm has detected the first virus aimed at Windows 95, the Independent on Sunday reported yesterday.
The report said that according to analysts at Sophos, an Oxfordshire firm which produces anti virus programs for computers, the new virus called "Boza" originated in Australia. They said that if a program contaminated by Boza was used, it could infect up to three other programs.
When Boza swings into action, it attaches itself to other existing programs and, while they run, makes copies of itself. It also puts a message on the screen reading "The taste of fame just got tastier VLAD Australia does it again with the world's first Win95 virus."
Boza's makers have clearly targeted the Windows 95 operating system, which can run programs whose instructions are 32 bits long, rather than 16 bits, allowing greater flexibility. Boza is written specifically to infect 32 bit programs.
The threat to more than 10 million Windows 95 users is obvious because Microsoft included no anti virus software with its system.
At present, over 7,000 different kinds of computer virus exist, but Boza is considered to be relatively harmless, as it is not especially easy to spread.
The Independent on Sunday said that in Britain computer viruses cost $128 million in lost data, lost working hours and repair work.
The newspaper also reported that at least one in four large companies had been affected by a virus called Concept, which uses the latest version of Microsoft Word to infect different makes of computer at the same time.
The claim was made by Alan Solomon, chairman of 5+5 International, which makes the Dr Solomon Toolkit anti virus software. Concept was first discovered last August. Its rapid spread is attributed to firms' increasing use of internal e mail to streamline their operations.