Summary

There is no virus known by this name to F-Secure anti-virus products. However, we sometimes get queries about 'Tempest virus', since the text "TEMPEST" is sometimes visible to users of Quantum Fireball Tempest hard drives.

Additional Details

During the manufacture and testing of the Fireball drives, a data pattern is used which writes the text string "Tempest" all over the hard drive. This is a part of the normal testing process for all disk drives and is not indicative of any hardware problem. This text string is residual test data which is overwritten by the customer during normal operation and is not cause for any concern.

However, if a data corruption occurs for some other reason, the text "TEMPEST" might become visible. For example, if a document file is cross-linked to an unused area of the disk, the user would see a part of his document to be replaced with "TEMPEST" texts.

This is not caused by a virus and is not a problem of the Fireball drives themselves.

[Analysis: Mikko Hypponen, F-Secure]