The first version of the CIH virus appears. Also known as Chernobyl or Spacefiller, CIH viruses are able to erase flash ROM BIOS content.
CIH is a Microsoft Windows 9x computer virus which is one of the most damaging viruses. It can overwrite critical information on infected system drives, and more importantly, in most cases overwriting the system BIOS. Created by Chen Ing-hau who was a student at Tatung University in Taiwan at that time, the virus that derived from his initials, was believed to infect 60 million computers internationally, resulting in an estimated $1 billion in commercial damages.
Chen had said that his intention to create the virus was to accept the challenge against bold claims of antiviral efficiency by antivirus software developers. After the virus spread rapidly among his classmates, he apologized and created an antivirus for it. The antivirus was also available for public download.
The virus did most of its damage within a few months of ExploreZip and Melissa's appearance.