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Encountering the Chernobyl virus is not a pleasant experience. Network Associates wrote an analysis of the original Chernobyl viruses in which the security firm describes the effect of the Chernobyl virus on the average system: "The viruses contain a very dangerous payload, whose trigger date depends on the variant. On this date, they attempt to overwrite the flash-BIOS. If the flash-BIOS is write-enabled (and this is the case in most modern computers with a flash-BIOS), this renders the machine unusable because it will no longer boot. At the same time, they also overwrite the hard disk with garbage."