Romanian security firm BitDefender has revealed that after releasing signatures to protect its customers from a virus that deleted files from their computers containing gypsy music, it was inundated with letters of complaint from customers who wanted the virus to spread.
The virus, dubbed Antiman.A, was discovered at the end of April and duped users into executing its payload by pretending to contain news about three Romanian journalists that had been kidnapped. When run, the virus searched the victim's computer for files containing the names of Romanian gypsy music singers.
At the time, BitDefender's chief technology officer Bogdan Dumitru said the virus writer was obviously a Romanian citizen that had 'deep discontent' with gypsy music in Romania.
A Bitdefender spokesperson said that it released signature files to protect customers within hours of discovering the virus but instead of praise, the company started receiving emails from users that thought the virus was 'socially useful' and should be allowed to thrive.
One customer, whose details have been withheld, said: "I appreciate your rapid reaction when new viruses are released… Nevertheless, when socially useful viruses are released, I think you could wait at least one day… This is not a virus, this is a utilitarian tool". The message concluded: "If you know the author of this virus, please give him my email address... I'm ready to offer him food and drinks for at least 2 weeks".
Another customer was also hoping detection signatures were delayed but he went on to wish for a variant that could attack legacy systems: "Couldn't you guys wait two or three more days, until my whole neighbourhood was infected? Is there a version of this virus that can erase the cassettes played in cars that are stopped in traffic?"
Last word went to a BitDefender customer that offered to keep the antivirus labs staff busy to try give the virus more time to spread: "I would have gotten all of you drunk just to make sure you didn't get the [detection] tool out… god bless the guy who created this virus."
Talkback
Judging by the tone of your article, you seem to find the prejudice you're reporting amusing rather than offensive. Would you take the same attitude to a virus that was wiping out the music of African Americans, or Israelis, or any other cultural group?
if you dont know exactly the situation dont make a misjudgement.
you have to really understand the situation, to live in Romania or be a Romanian to get it.
it is not anti-gypsy, but there is no english word for this kind of music, and it has nothing good in it.
so you never say that things about it, because it is NOT rasist ...it is about quality and about the people who listen it.
i like real gypsy music, i like better african music, folk music, pop music, rock music, a lot of kinds of music, but this one NOT.
lol, let me tell the real story, I'm from Romania, after all :P
The virus is realy called "Anti-Manele" and the term "Manele" is a genre of music banned here.
Here's what to know about this music that they call "gypsy music". This genre is a combination of Romanian traditional music caled "Populara" and turchish music. Why was it banned? Because around 2-3 years ago it took almost all music buisness here. The prob is that they are cheap copies of great turchish songs. It is true that most of the "manele" "artists" are gypsies and even now their music is best seller here and a party is not a real party without MANELE.
The Anti-Manele virus was released by a group of rockers(not a music band). The deal is that there is a battle between rockers and ""manelisti" here and the virus searches the files on the computer that contain name of the best "manele" artists and deletes the files. The virus comes around by the name of a famous "manele" mp3 and how stupid must you be to open the file when you see it's an ".exe" not an ".mp3".
Due to banning of this music, "manele" mp3s are not illegal in Romania so lots of this kind of mp3s are free on the internet.
There are around 100 sites that provide free "manele" mp3s, I could give you some if you want to listen, to know what's all about.
If you want to know more, just ask
I agree to help the hacker who made that virus in his work.
This is the greatest blessing the romanian culture ever received.
I hope some day our culture will be free of this gypsy garbage.
Oh my gawd!! I thought this was hilarious - so i went and downloaded a few of these songs to see what it was about! Im from th UK and if YOU are from the UK and are wondering what this music is like, just let me say this to you..... A..ga....doo doo doo, push pineapple shake the tree!
Yep - the virus is MORE than justified hahaha!
This post has been removed by a moderator.