Once this boot count reaches 90, AIDS hides directories and encrypts the names of all files on drive C: (rendering the system unusable), at which time the user is asked to 'renew the license' and contact PC Cyborg Corporation for payment (which would involve sending US$189 to a post office box in Panama).

Harvard-taught evolutionary biologist Dr. Joseph Popp was identified as the author of the AIDS trojan horse and was a subscriber to this list.

[1] Popp was eventually discovered by the British anti-virus industry and named on a New Scotland Yard arrest warrant.

[2] A Harvard-trained anthropologist, Popp was associated with the Flying Doctors, a branch of the African Medical Research Foundation (AMREF), and a consultant for the WHO in Kenya, where he had organized a conference in the new Global AIDS Program.

Young and Yung pointed out the fatal weakness in malware such as the AIDS Trojan, namely, the reliance on symmetric cryptography.