Bob Montgomery, a systems engineer for the Harvard Coop's computer department, has been swamped with phone calls about Michelangelo this Week--but not from people eager to discuss Renaissance Art.

Instead, Montgomery has been busy answering questions from frantic computer users about the Michelangelo virus, a destructive computer program designed to attack IBM personal computers on the anniversary of the artist's birthday today.

"It's been a fun thing for us." Montgomery said yesterday. "Every third call has been about Michelangelo."

According to Montgomery, if the virus is activated, it will erase information stored on computer hard drives.

The virus hides in the computer's memory until the internal clock reads March 6 and then strikes as soon as the computer is turned on that day, Montgomery said.

Michelangelo has created so much hysteria, he said, because" it is a dramatic virus, a time bomb. It does something spectacular, in this case spectacularly destructive, at a specific time people know about."

Montgomery said that people are probably overreacting to the threat the virus poses.

"One-half of all the people who have called in had absolutely nothing to worry about," said Montgomery.

"About a third were Macintosh owners. Michelangelo does not affect Macs at all," he added.

IBM owners can take a variety of steps to protect their machines, Montgomery said.

"There are many anti-virus programs available, some of them free, that protect against Michelangelo. People could just not turn on their computers March 6, or set their clocks forward a day," he said.

Harvard computers at the Office for Information Technology are virus-free, said Jim Ferrato, a network consultant for the office.

"We've scanned all our local networks, and wehaven't found anything," he said.

Some Harvard students, despite the panicsurrounding Michelangelo, don't appear to beparticularly concerned.

"I've heard about it, but I'm not worryingabout it," said Rob S. Chang '95.

"I just hope my mom doesn't get it at work,"said Jason M. Waanders '95.

Montgomery said that virus scares happen everyyear, alerting computer users to just a few of thehundreds of viruses that exist.

The Next Time Bomb

"It's both exciting and kind to seeeverybody upset about a But tomorrow, whenit's over, one will forget about them nexttime bomb comes along."

Montgomery said that virus Michelangelo aregenerally "hackers" trying to get attentions.

"I don't know whether this was created byan art fan or a Mutant Ninja "Turtle fan, butI assume the latter, because he playdoesn't watch much PBS," gomery said