home
***
CD-ROM
|
disk
|
FTP
|
other
***
search
/
Hackers Underworld 2: Forbidden Knowledge
/
Hackers Underworld 2: Forbidden Knowledge.iso
/
VIRUS
/
CRPTLT.R13
< prev
next >
Wrap
Text File
|
1993-02-24
|
44KB
|
994 lines
▄▄▄ ▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄ ▄▄▄ ▄▄▄▄▄▄ ▄▄ ▄▄ ▄▄▄ ▄▄▄▄▄ ▄▄▄▄▄▄▄ ▄▄▄▄▄
█▒▒█ █▒▒▒▒▒▒▒█ █▒▒█ █▒▒▒▒▒█ █▒▒█ █▒▒█ █▒▒█ █▒▒▒▒█ █▒▒▒▒▒▒█ █▒▒▒▒█
█▒▒█ ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ █▒▒█ ▀▀▀▀█▒▒█ █▒▒█ █▒▒█ █▒▒█ ▀▀▀█▒▒█ ▀▀▀█▒▒█ ▀▀▀▀▀
█▒▒█ █▒▒█ ▄▄▄▄█▒▒█ █▒▒█ █▒▒█ █▒▒█ ▄▄▄█▒▒█ █▒▒█
█▒▒█ █▒▒█ █▒▒▒▒▒█ ▀▀ █▒▒█ █▒▒█ █▒▒▒▒█ █▒▒█
█▒▒█ █▒▒█ ▀▀▀▀█▒▒█ █▒▒█ █▒▒█ ▀▀▀▀▀ █▒▒█
█▒▒█ ▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄ █▒▒█ █▒▒█ █▒▒█ █▒▒█ █▒▒█
█▒▒█ █▒▒▒▒▒▒▒█ █▒▒█ █▒▒█ █▒▒█ █▒▒█ █▒▒█
▀▀▀ ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ ▀▀▀ ▀▀ ▀▀ ▀▀▀ ▀▀
NEWSLETTER NUMBER 13
****************************************************************
******* Another festive, info-glutted, tongue-in-cheek training
manual provided solely for the entertainment of the virus
programmer, security specialist, casual home/business user or PC
hobbyist interested in the particulars - technical or otherwise
- of cybernetic data replication and/or mutilation. Jargon free,
too. EDITED BY URNST KOUCH, February - March 1993
CRYPT INFOSYSTEMS BBS - 215.868.1823
****************************************************************
TOP QUOTE: ". . . in the end the perfumed and tailored yes men
are as dangerous and evil as the bullies they serve."
-- Morley Safer
IN THIS ISSUE: News . . . Interview with Kim Clancy of the AIS
BBS . . Aristotle founds the Virginia Institute of Virus
Research . . . Mark Ludwig's 1st International Virus Writing
Contest . . . SUSAN virus . . . VOOTIE virus: a demo virus
optimized for PRODIGY e-mail . . . Lawrence Livermore Labs
switches to puppet manufacturing after bottom falls out of
thermonuclear weapons design . . . ViruDos: an April Fool's
command shell . . . In the reading room with TIME and WIRED
magazines . . . FLAGYLL virus . . . much more
News: JAPS NOT PLAGUED MUCH BY VIRUSES: NUMBER OF REPORTED CASES
TRIVIAL SEZ CRYPT NEWSLETTER
Japan's Information Technology Promotion Agency says "computer
damage" (?) caused by viruses amounted to 253 cases. Agency
bureaucrats attributed the surge in data vandalism, four-fold
over 1991, to international exchange of software. That's it,
blame the foreigners! Wooo.
MAN PRANKS EX-WIFE WITH PC TROJAN, EX-WIFE SHOWS SKILLFUL USE OF
LOCAL SHERIFF
A Santa Rosa, CA., computer prankster has been stung by a felony
tampering charge after admitting he sabotaged his ex-wife's
computer files. If convicted, prankster James Welsh could be
headed for a three year trip to the "bighouse."
The 32-year-old James Welsh says he sent a disk with a "kamikaze
program" to his ex-wife as vengeance for an unpleasant divorce.
Welsh's former wife, Kathleen Shelton, had all her files erased
when she used the booby-trapped program. The trojan left a
taunting limerick as its calling card. Shelton said Welsh set up
the system for her and she had [stupidly] continued to rely on
him for help and advice.
Welsh's defense will hinge upon the fact that he claims the
trojan erased a program that he had pirated. Because it was a
pirated "ware," "it [is] not protected under the state's
anti-hacking law," he says. No news on how closely software
engineers at CERT or the SPA will be watching this case.
TOMORROW CANCELLED! RUSTY & EDIE'S BUSTED FOR PIRACY,
UNDERGROUND BBSer's SAY THEY HAD IT COMING, SUITS PLAY
DUMB
"No hassles. No rules! Just a couple of burn-out hippies from
the '60s . . ." were a number of the lines sysops Rusty & Edie
used to describe themselves in various ads plugging the wonders
of their BBS. Now "First to try on the new felonization of
piracy bill" can be added to the list.
The FBI and SPA stormed the gates of the Boardman, Ohio,
bulletin board system in early February, seizing equipment
and accusing the operators of pirating software. In what has
become a standard statement whenever large pirate BBS's are
raided, the Software Publishers Association, which worked with
the FBI in investigating the case, said agents seized computers,
hard disk drives and telecommunications equipment, as well as
financial and subscriber records. ". . . following the receipt
of complaints from a number of SPA members that their software
was being illegally distributed on the Rusty & Edie's BBS" the
trade group said that it began an investigation months earlier
which included the download of retail programs from the BBS.
The system, established in 1987 and described as the third
largest BBS in the country in a glowing review which landed in
the pages of Computer Shopper only days before the bust,
maintained 124 nodes and more than 14,000 subscribers.
For $89 a year, "subscribers . . . were given access to the
board's contents, including many popular copyrighted business
and entertainment packages," droned the SPA statement.
Alert Crypt Newsletter readers familiar with the issue of
software piracy had a variety of responses to the news. "Copy
that floppy!" cried a subscriber in the northeast. "I'm
surprised it took so long," sneered another. "I was going to
join the week before the bust, but they were too expensive,"
added a reader from the Midwest. Jim O'Brien, the editor in
charge of the section in Computer Shopper which ran the review
of Rusty & Edie's claimed neither he nor free-lance writer
Dennis Fowler had any inkling the BBS was allegedly involved in
piracy.
The FBI has not charged Russell and Edwinia Hardenburgh in the
case. The FBI has also been equivocal on whether it will extend
its dragnet to include patrons of the system.
And as of the last week in February the ACLU had thrown its hat
into the ring on the side of the BBS, challenging the
constitutionality of the raid on the grounds that the piracy
charge should have been pursued in civil court. ACLU Ohio
legal director Kevin O'Neill conceded to the United Press
International that the FBI's copyright infringement, uh, piracy,
charges might have merit.
HAND PUPPETS TO TEACH COURSE IN COMPUTER ETHICS (BUT WILL THEY
BE ELIGIBLE TO JOIN THE UNION)?
Still reeling from the double rabbit-punch of the end of the
Cold War and a Democrat in The White House, which has seen their
40-year pursuit of better ways to make thermonuclear explosives
and X-ray pumped space weapons at the expense of the taxpayer
thrown into disrepute, Lawrence Livermore Laboratory scientists
are turning to puppetry as one way of justifying their continued
funding.
Livermore Computation Organization employees Lonnie Moore and
Gale Warshawsky have developed a pilot puppet program to teach
very young school children about computer ethics and security.
The stars of the show cover two of the major computer
stereotypes: Gooseberry, a stupidly trained computer operator,
and Dirty Dan, a "hapless, heinous hacker," software pirate and
virus spreader.
In one skit, according to the Associated Press, Dirty Dan brings
home a computer game obtained from a friend and ends up
"feeding" Chip - the computer - a virus which "makes him dizzy."
" . . . nobody out there is teaching ethics and security," said
Moore on the reason for his program. The Crypt Newsletter
adds, "Who's the leader of the gang that's made for YOU and ME?
M - I - C, Kay - E - Why, M - O - U - S - E!!!"
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
PROFILE: KIM CLANCY & THE AIS BBS - VIRUS CODE FOR ALL
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
Here at the Crypt Newsletter, every time the editorial staff
reads another piece of e-mail from the local FeebNets saying,
"If you have virii on your board, soon 'The Feds [in blinking
red]' will be giving you a call, so be carrefill [sic]."
or
"Here in England, bobbies from Scotland Yard just confiscated
Tinker Dill's Virus Happy Place in Squatney. It's a bloody
shame. <RWG>"
we have a good laugh. And that's beca