Bernd Fix

Board Member - Wau Holland Stiftung (CCC)

Bernd Fix is a hacker and computer security expert. In 1986 Fix joined the Chaos Computer Club (CCC) in Hamburg and started to work on computer security issues, focussing on computer virus research. He published a first demo virus (Rushhour) in autumn 1986 in the Datenschleuder #17, the hacker magazine edited by the CCC. He also contributed results of his research to the book “Computer Viruses” by Ralf Burger. In 1987 he devised a method to neutralize the Vienna Virus; this event marks the first documented antivirus software ever written.

Bernd Fix is also the author of several research viruses; among them the VP370 virus for IBM mainframe computers. The VP370 source code was allegedly stolen by the Bundesnachrichtendienst (Federal Intelligence Service in Germany) in 1988 to be used in attacks against East Block and NATO mainframe computer systems in the so-called “Project Rahab”.