Disinfectant Retired 
--------------------

Announcement and Press Release May 6, 1998 
Updated: October 11, 1998

I regret to announce that I am officially retiring Disinfectant, our free
anti-viral utility for the Macintosh. The current version 3.7.1 is the last
version. Disinfectant will not be updated for the new Autostart 9805 worm or for
any future viruses, worms, or other Macintosh malware.

I made this decision not because of the new Autostart 9805 worm, but rather
because of the widespread and dangerous Microsoft macro virus problem. I believe
that there are now well over 1000 of these viruses, and many new ones are
discovered every month. They are now a much more serious problem for Mac users
than are the classic Mac system viruses. I simply do not have the resources to
combat a problem which is this huge in scope and complexity.

I am aware that some Mac users do not use Microsoft Word 6 or Excel 5 or later
versions, and hence have still found Disinfectant useful. These people seem to be
a minority, however. The majority of Mac users need a commercial anti-viral
product. Disinfectant is not adequate protection, and hasn't been for several
years. For this reason, I feel that there is little point in updating the program
for the new worm. Doing so would, in fact, only provide a false sense of
security, and result in more harm than good.

There are two major commercial anti-viral utilities for the Macintosh. All
Disinfectant users should switch to one of these products. Both products are
effective and actively maintained.

   Virex. Network Associates. 
   Nortan Anti-Viral for Macintosh. Symantec.

I began working on the Mac virus problem and Disinfectant ten years ago, in the
Spring of 1988, when the first Mac viruses began to appear. Disinfectant 1.0 was
released to the public on March 18, 1989. I have been enormously gratified by the
success of the program and its very kind reception by the Macintosh community.
I'd like to take this opportunity to thank my many users for their support and
encouragement over all these years. I'd also like to express my appreciation to
the other members of the Mac anti-viral research community for their outstanding
spirit of cooperation and public service which has made all of our products
possible.

Nine years is a long run for any kind of computer software. It's time to move on.

[Added in October, 1998.] In addition to the Autostart worm and the Microsoft
macro viruses, several other new Mac viruses have appeared since Disinfectant's
retirement in May. This makes it even more important that Disinfectant users
switch to one of the commerical products mentioned above.

John Norstad 
Northwestern University 
j-norstad@nwu.edu