Yesterday, a report was sent in to VIRUS-L regarding a disk, distributed by the Government Printing Office (GPO), which is infected by the Jerusalem B PC virus. I verified the report with GPO and they faxed me a copy of a letter which they have sent out to all known recipients of the disk. Attached is a (transcribed - sorry for any typos) copy of the faxed letter. Please refer to VIRUS-L/comp.virus for any possible follow-up discussions. Ken Kenneth R. van Wyk Moderator VIRUS-L/comp.virus Technical Coordinator, Computer Emergency Response Team Software Engineering Institute Carnegie Mellon University krvw@SEI.CMU.EDU (412) 268-7090 (24 hour hotline) ===== Cut Here ===== Dear Depository Librarian: GPO has just been notified by the Census Bureau that one of the floppy disks just distributed by GPO with the _County and City Data Book_ CD-ROM is infected with a computer virus AND SHOULD NOT BE USED UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES. The floppy disk was listed on shipping list 90-0057-P as C 3.134/2:C 83/2/988/floppy-2. The title on the floppy disk reads as follows: Bureau of the Census Elec. County & City Data Bk., 1988 U.S. Stats., Inc., 1101 King St., Suite 601, Alexandria, VA 22314 (703) 979-9699 PLEASE DESTROY THE FLOPPY DISK AS SOON AS IT IS RECEIVED. (Do NOT reformat and reuse the floppy disk.) The virus has been identified as the Jerusalum-B virus (also referred to as the Israeli virus). It infects any .COM or .EXE program on MS-DOS personal computers and increases program size by approximately 1,800 bytes. Other programs are infected when they are executed in an infected system. The Jerusalum virus can cause significant damage on an infected personal computer. It generally slows down the system and some versions destroy all data on the hard disk. .EXE files continue to grow in size until they are too large to execute. If your computer has already been infected, we recommend that, if possible, you seek assistance from a computer specialist at your institution immediately. There are special programs available for detecting and eradicating computer viruses. One may be available in your institution or from someone you know. DO NOT USE YOUR PC TO ACCESS A NETWORK OR PRODUCE FLOPPY DISKS CONTAINING .EXE OR .COM PROGRAMS FOR BY OTHER PCS. The _County and City Data Book_ CD-ROM can be used safely with the software on the other floppy disk disk distributed in that shipment ((C 134/2:C 83/2/988/floppy). If you have any questions, please call Jan Erickson at GPO (202 275-1003) or the Census Bureau Customer Service at (301 763-4100). The Census Bureau and GPO regret any problems that this may have caused. Appropriate measures will be taken to ensure that it does not happen again.