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FBI, New Scotland Yard and Japan's international trade ministry, only a few thousand machines were hit. But some data was lost in affected companies and Michelangelo, if nothing else, served as a warning of what might happen in the future.

It is now believed by many that the real threat from computer viruses will start as soon as a new generation of bugs begins to breed in the industrialized countries of the West. The new viruses will attack from every corner of the world, but the biggest threat will come from one country - Bulgaria.

The first call came in to the Help Desk of a US West Coast magazine publisher just after 5 p.m. on Thursday, 27 June 1991.3 The company has 1,500 interlinked computers spread around three buildings. The Help Desk, part of the technical support department, works as a sort of trouble-shooter for the entire networked system, dealing with routine problems and helping the less computer-literate staff.

'My computer has started making a noise,' said the caller.

In the normal run of events, noises, apart from the standard 'beep' when starting up or the low-pitched whir of the machine's cooling system, are not part of a computer's standard repertoire. A noise usually suggests a problem - a high-pitched whine can be a warning that the computer's monitor is faulty; a loud hum can signal a difficulty with the hard disk.

'What sort of noise?' the girl at the Help Desk asked.

'I don't know, it's just a noise. I've switched it off. Can someone come over?'

Seconds later the Help Desk logged a call from another user with the same problem. Then the switchboard lit up. There were callers from all around the company, all with the same problem: their computers were making odd noises. It may be a tune, one of the callers added helpfully, coming from the computer's small internal speaker.

The sixth caller recognized the melody. The computers were all playing tinny renditions of 'Yankee Doodle'.

To the specialists in the Technical Support Department, the discovery that the tune was 'Yankee Doodle' was confirmation that they had been hit by a virus, and a well-known one at that. The Yankee Doodle virus had been first seen in 1989 and was said to be relatively

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