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Al-Ahram Weekly 6 - 12 May 1999 Issue No. 428 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 6 - 12 May 1999 Issue No. 428
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Profile Features Special Focus Travel Living Sports People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters Rehearsing for Y2K
By Amira HoweidyThe hi-tech revolution of the last years of the second millennium also has its dark side. This is when electronic vandalism reaches a peak: a frustrated 24-year-old Taiwanese computer wizard puts his initials on a virus and launches it across the globe, damaging at least 60 million computers and highlighting the thin and vulnerable nature of the electronic tether that connects people to information critical to their lives.
The CIH virus, named after its Taiwanese creator, Cheng Ing-hau, struck on 26 April, the 13th anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in what is now Ukraine. Causing damage estimated at hundreds of millions of dollars, the virus attacked Windows 95 and Windows 98 platforms across the globe.
Chernobyl is a variant of the W95.CIH virus created in mid-1998 -- the first virus to cause serious damage to a PC by modifying or corrupting the BIOS chip (the computer chip which controls computer booting). By overwriting part of the BIOS programme, the virus prevents a computer from starting up when the power is turned on, rendering the computer completely unusable.
Although CIH was preceded a month earlier by a less destructive virus named Melissa, the first experience, it seems, did not serve as an effective wake-up call. In the US alone, 2,328 computers were reportedly affected. But it was regions of flourishing software piracy, such as Asia and the Middle East, that were hit the hardest. According to press reports in Turkey and South Korea, 300,000 computers were damaged last week. In India, at least 10,000 computer owners reported being infected. According to press reports, 10 per cent of all computer users in the United Arab Emirates were affected; there were at least 10,000 victims in Bangladesh, while reports in China varied from 7,600 to 100,000 damaged computers.
But in the case of Egypt, damage remained a closely guarded secret, with officials declining to make estimates. So far, the official position continues to assert that "everything is under control", and there is no need for panic. Moreover, critics argue, the Cabinet Information and Decision Support Centre (CIDSC), which is the official authority responsible for Information Technology (IT) issues, did not warn computer users in advance to take precautions. The warning issued by the CIDSC was made on the afternoon of 26 April.
The virus, which was expected to strike on the 26th, came almost as a complete surprise. It was individuals, and not the CIDSC, who spread the news by word of mouth, possibly complicating the situation further.
So, what happened? What is the extent of the damage? And how many computers were affected? The CIDSC has no answers. To CIDSC vice-director Gamal Mohamed Ali, there are good reasons for this. "We have no available or accurate statistics to gauge the Chernobyl damage, so, naturally, we wouldn't cite figures we are not sure of," he told Al-Ahram Weekly.
And why didn't they warn computer users in advance? "We didn't want to create unnecessary panic or overreactions," he responded. But shouldn't the damage anticipated from Chernobyl be cause for some concern? In the same breath, Ali maintained that the CIDSC actually did issue warnings, albeit "locally". The issue, for Ali, boils down to the fact that Egypt has no computer culture to speak of.
Citing one example he learned first-hand, Ali said that 35 out of 60 computers "in a computer firm" were destroyed because the company simply wasn't prepared. "We did all we could and opened a hotline, which received almost 60 calls in the first two days," he said, warning, however, that "this does not reflect the real number of damaged computers". He eventually suggested that some 20 to 30 per cent of Egypt's 40,000 Internet users were most likely affected.
According to Mohamed Nasser, a computer consultant to American Express and the owner of a software firm, CIH caused damage worth "at least" LE10 million. "Besides the material losses, the fact that two working days and valuable time and data were wasted reflects the seriousness of the damage," he said. At least half a dozen Internet cafés shut down for 48 hours. "The concerned authorities should have warned us in advance," he snapped.
But there is a "positive" side here, says Microsoft product manager Assem Galal. "The virus was a turning point; for the first time in the history of technology in Egypt, I find an interested press. Everyone came to realise what an important role a computer plays in their lives," he told the Weekly. In a country where 85 per cent of software is pirated, many are learning the hard way that licensed software can actually protect them from virus infection.
The CIH experience in Egypt has not been a pleasant one, but to many it has served as a warning about the even larger and more complicated bug of the century -- Y2K. The Egyptian government began working on the two-digit problem only a year ago, raising fears that not much will be accomplished before 2000. Despite official statements that impressive progress has been made toward a resolution of the problem, fear and confusion linger.
"We have every reason to worry," says Mohamed El-Nawawi, managing director of Egypt's oldest Internet Service Provider, Intouch. "The views from experts in the field have not yet reached a consensus that we are close to being year 2000 compliant. Chernobyl is a mini-rehearsal for the serious damage Y2K represents," he said. If CIH targeted Windows 95 and 98 platforms, only leaving out NT and Macintosh operating systems, he warned, "Y2K will affect every single computerised chip there is."
