Clinton Haines
Born10 April 1976
Brisbane, Australia
Died10 April 1997(1997-04-10) (aged 21)
Saint Lucia, Queensland, Australia
NationalityAustralian
Other namesHarry McBungus
TaLoN
Terminator-Z
OccupationHacker

Clinton 'Clint' Haines (10 April 1976 – 10 April 1997) was an Australian computer hacker. He was also known as Harry McBungus, TaLoN and Terminator-Z.[1]

Haines attended Ipswich Grammar School. He wrote his first computer virus in assembly language using the A86 assembler in the early 1990s.

Haines was responsible for the viruses NoFrills, Dudley,[2] X-Fungus/PuKE, Daemaen and 1984. NoFrills infected the Australian Taxation Office (ATO).[3] It was described by anti-virus company manager Len Grooves as "totally unimpressive". Grooves added: "This is a very average virus...It could have been written by any first-year computer student. In fact, it had serious design faults and programming bugs. I would not hire the writer."[3] Nevertheless, the ATO decided to turn off all of its 15,000 computers until the virus was eradicated, to avoid the infection spreading.[4]

His virus Dudley also infected the computers of Telecom Australia), shutting down their system in two hours.[4] The Dudley virus was a variant of the No Frills code with the text [Oi Dudley!][PuKE].

Haines died from a heroin overdose in 1997,[5][6] in Saint Lucia, Brisbane,[4] celebrating his 21st birthday. At the time of his death he was completing an undergraduate science degree in microbiology at the University of Queensland.[4] A computer virus was written in his honour (RIP Terminator-Z by VLAD).[1] The virus, named 'Memorial', pays acknowledgement to Haines by placing a message on an infected user's screen.[7]

References

  1. 1 2 Robotham, Julie (28 April 1997). "The hacker who burned too bright". Sydney Morning Herald. Archived from the original on 18 October 2016.
  2. ↑ 28 May 1995 Computer underground Digest Volume 7 : Issue 43. ISSN 1066-632X
  3. 1 2 Lowe, Sue; Robotham, Jule; Sarno, Tony (7 March 1995). "Take a pill and don't call us in the morning". Sydney Morning Herald. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016.
  4. 1 2 3 4 Robotham, Julie (5 May 1997). "Death of the virus king". Sydney Morning Herald. Archived from the original on 17 August 2017.
  5. ↑ Lowe, Sue (27 October 1998). "The hacking hall of fame". Sydney Morning Herald. Archived from the original on 17 August 2017.
  6. ↑ Julie Robotham (6 May 1997). "Live fast, die young: Obsessed by viruses and heroin". Sydney Morning Herald. Archived from the original on 26 February 2007.
  7. ↑ F-Secure Virus Descriptions : Memorial
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