ware. As part of this policy, inside
Bulgaria s borders there were no
The Bulgarian
laws protecting computer informa-
tion. Virus vandalism was not illegal.
Computer Virus Factory
No matter how much damage virus
hackers did to others work and prop-
By Gordon Young
erty, programming and spreading
ulgaria was the world s computer tured. They soon had their hands on computer viruses was not a crime.
Bvirus hot spot between 1988 and copies of the virus, and quickly The fight against computer viruses
1993, when a set of educational, tech- developed new and improved ver- in Bulgaria was weakly organized.
nical, political, and economic condi- sions that were smaller, faster, and Because few could afford them, per-
tions supported the creation and more efficient. The first Bulgarian- sonal computers were not common
spread of computer viruses. Virus pro- produced virus was the harmless in Bulgaria. Most computers were
grammers became more organized, Vacsina, written by a 27-year-old shared. This allowed virus infections
concentrated, and active in Bulgaria engineer, Teodor Prevalsky, who to spread between users, their disks,
than anywhere else in the world. developed both virus and anti-virus then on to other shared computers.
Among a well-educated, badly software as an intellectual hobby.
under-employed and socially discon- Though he did not intend it, his cre- Dark Avenger
tented class of computer program- ation escaped his control. It was the Bulgaria s most notorious virus
mers, creating computer viruses first Eastern virus to jump the Iron vandal was a skillful, talented, and
became a popular hobby. Curtain to the West. clever programmer who used the
alias Dark Avenger.
Eastern Bloc High-Tech Capital Dark Avenger surfaced in the
Bulgaria s most
In the early 1980s, Bulgaria s spring of 1989. A contagious new
notorious virus vandal was a
president, Todor Zhvkov, decided his virus, the first  fast infector, infected
skillful, talented, and clever
country should become the high-tech targeted files as soon as they were
programmer who used the
capital of the Eastern Bloc countries. opened. The virus contained the mes-
High-tech products would be traded alias Dark Avenger. sage,  This program was written
for needed raw materials. Universi- in the city of Sofia, 1988 89 Dark
ties and technical colleges geared up The common Cascade and Ping Avenger. (Sofia is the capital of
to train computer programmers. Pong viruses invaded the country Bulgaria.)
The country s first computer prod- next. From Ping Pong, the pirate pro- Dark Avenger uploaded computer
ucts were slow and shoddy clones of grammers learned about boot sector viruses to European BBSs (Bulletin
IBM and Apple machines. Though viruses. Quickly, virus programming Board Systems). Sometimes he
quality improved through the late caught on across the country. Totally packed viruses in Trojan Horse
1980s, Bulgaria s businesses were not new viruses soon surfaced. booby traps. When the Trojan Horse
modern enough to have much use for programs triggered, they spread the
computer technology. The new com- Bulgarian Pirates viruses through the victim computer
puters often ended up uselessly deco- There were so many pirate pro- system.
rating the desks of senior bureau- grammers in Bulgaria because their One could call Dark Avenger a
crats a symbol both of the bureau- government trained them for it. Bul-  technopath, in that he used tech-
crats social status and the useless garian government policies made nology to indiscriminately harm soci-
futility of the bureaucratic administra- cracking Western software copy pro- ety. Along with the vicious, destruc-
tive system that made the machines. tection schemes a standard part of a tive desire evident in his virus
The breakup of the Soviet Union computer student s education. As a designs, he has said that, for him,
made things worse. Economic condi- nation entering the computer age, Bul-  destroying data is a pleasure, and
tions deteriorated and unemployment garia chose to equip itself by pirating he  just loves to destroy other peo-
soared, even among the highly skilled. and reverse-engineering Western soft- ple s work.
ware and hardware. Hacking and Dark Avenger left enough clues in
The Bulgaria-Virus Connection cracking were not only tolerated, they his handiwork to lead virus sleuths to
The story of the Bulgarian com- were part of national policy. a good guess at his identity: a young
puter virus factory begins around Justified as anti-capitalistic, this programmer working for a small, pri-
November 1988. The Vienna virus, choice also served the cash-strapped vate software firm in Sofia. But there
originating in Austria, was the first small country well by slashing was no point in trying to turn him
specimen Bulgarian hackers cap- spending on expensive Western soft- in despite the damage he did, he
was breaking no law by doing it. downloading all the others. Running subsided as swiftly as it began. The
on a  no-questions-asked, basis, the BBS shut down, Dark Avenger dis-
Virus-Spreading BBS BBS let virus hackers use aliases. appeared, and other virus program-
In November 1988, a computer Electronic conferences spread  how- mers struggled on with careers in the
phone-in BBS that spread viruses to virus-building information. corrupt, destitute Bulgarian econo-
started up in Sofia. Worse than live viruses, spreading my, or left to work in the West.
Run from the home of sysop virus program source code gave A costly legacy lives on: Comput-
Todor Todorov, a young computer hackers what they needed to make ers never again can be seen as totally
science student, the BBS uploaded safe or secure. Technology and tech-
and downloaded both anti-virus niques developed then are used
Hacking and
resources and active viruses and today, and the ongoing virus threat
cracking were not only
virus source code. Named the  Virus takes its toll in time and money.
tolerated, they were part
Exchange BBS, it described itself One postscript: In January 1997,
as,  A place for free exchange of of national policy. someone using the alias Dark
viruses and a place where everything Avenger perhaps the original, per-
is permitted! It boasted a zoo of endless new viruses. Changing the haps an imitator hacked into the
more than 300 live computer viruses. program code by, for example, Sofia University computer system,
The price of membership on the adding new code for new functions, taking complete control for two days.
BBS was an upload of one new virus created a new, unique virus. Masquerading as a legitimate sysop,
to the collection. Creating a new he managed to fool systems in both
virus was the easiest way to do this. The End of an Era Bulgaria and the United States into
Uploading it then gave access to In 1993, virus activity in Bulgaria allowing him access.