Check Those Disks!

With all the hoopla about the Michelangelo virus in early 1992, Paula Porpilia, founder of TIN Compliance Consultants in Maryland, warned financial institutions to check their disks before sending them to the Internal Revenue Service.

Paula was sharing information with bankers at the ABA Compliance Conference in Washington D.C. in June about diskettes that were sent to IRS that contained a virus. Although the incidents were accidents-the banks did not know they had bad disks-it still led to unpleasant investigations.

Any disk received by the Federal Reserve Bank, the Internal Revenue Service, or any government agency, is tested before being accepted. If there is a virus, the disk is sent directly to security, where it triggers an immediate investigation.

Her advice is to test any diskette before using. And especially before sending to a government agency.

Copyright © 1992 Bankers' Hotline. Originally appeared in Bankers' Hotline, Vol. 3, No. 3, 7/92