29A folds

2008-03-01

Helen Martin

Virus Bulletin, UK

Editor: Helen Martin

Abstract

Virus writers hang up their hats.

The infamous 29A virus-writing group is no more, according to an announcement posted on the group's website by 'VirusBuster' - seemingly the last active member of the group.

The 29A virus-writing group had members based in several countries and was so-named because '29A' is the hexadecimal for '666'. The group's creations included W32/Chiton, the first virus to be aware of Thread Local Storage (see VB, June 2002, p.4); Rugrat, the first virus for the 64-bit Windows operating system (see VB, July 2004, p.4); SymbOS/Cabir, the first worm to spread from mobile phone to mobile phone (see VB, August 2004, p.4); and WinCE/Duts, the first Windows CE virus (see VB, September 2004, p.4).

On announcing his decision to close down the group 'VirusBuster' thanked 'all the people that worked hard to make [the 29A] group the best one'.

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