| Piratetrap | |
|---|---|
| Type | Boot sector virus |
| Creator | |
| Date Discovered | 20-MAY-1989 |
| Place of Origin | |
| Source Language | |
| Platform | Atari ST |
| Infection Length | 1 boot sector |
| Reported Costs | |
Piratetrap, also known as the P.M.S. virus, is an Atari ST virus discovered in 1989. It contains a copyright date of 1987, which may suggest the virus is much older, possibly predating the Signum virus, though this can't be proven. Piratetrap possibly went undetected for around two years, or its release was simply not triggered before 1989. It is possibly called "Pirate Trap" because it was intended to cause problems for people who illegally copied software, similar to Brain.
When an infected disk is booted, the Piratetrap becomes memory resident. It patches the XBIOS vector in a way that once in memory, its own boot sector reads are hidden. The virus copies itself at each use of Floprd (whenever the floppy disk in drive A: is accessed). It stays in memory if the system is reset. Piratetrap does not infect or do anything at all to the hard disk.
After every 50th infection, the virus displays the text:
** The Pirate Trap ***
* Youre being watched *
*** (C) P.M.S. 1987 ***Sources
Richard Karsmakers. THE KNOWN VIRUSES ON ATARI TOS COMPUTERS AND THEIR SYMPTOMS.