TECHNOLOGY : ‘Boza’ Infection of Windows 95 a Boon for Makers of Antivirus Software

Plumbers love the sight of a backed-up sink. The sound of a failing transmission is music to mechanics’ ears. And to certain software companies, there are few words more beautiful than these: computer virus.

The computer industry hasn’t had a really good virus scare since 1991, when the Michelangelo virus sent sales of antivirus software soaring. Since then, the companies that write those programs have waited with bated breath for the next Big One.

So it was hardly a surprise that TouchStone Software, a Huntington Beach company that got into the antivirus business a few months ago, was quick to capitalize on the hype surrounding the recently discovered Boza virus.

Unlike any virus before it, Boza is designed to attack Windows 95. That alone is enough to boost its standing on the Big One rankings. So TouchStone was among a handful of companies to quickly send out press releases touting their antivirus program’s effectiveness in fighting Boza.

Sal Viveros, senior product manager at TouchStone, acknowledges that Boza isn’t all that threatening, and that TouchStone’s software, called PC-cillin 95, also fights 6,000 other viruses. But in the antivirus business, he said, “you want to be seen as catching the latest.”

It’s too early to tell whether Boza is boosting antivirus sales, but “I’m sure it’s having a positive effect,” Viveros said.

So if viruses are so good for sales, why don’t software companies like TouchStone make their own viruses instead of waiting for a hack to create another Michelangelo?

“No, no, no,” Viveros said. “There were rumors of another company doing that a while back, and they got themselves in a lot of trouble. That would be a public relations nightmare.”

By Greg Miller, who covers high technology for The Times. He can be reached at (714) 966-7830 and at greg.miller@latimes.com.