HPAVC/HPAVC CD-ROM.iso/CRYPT20.ZIP/CRPTLT.R20

Text File | 1993-11-24 | 72KB | 1,618 lines

                CRYPT NEWSLETTER 20

                 -=Nov-Dec 1993=-

              Editor & Publisher: Urnst Kouch
      Tech Editor: Kohntark; Bureau Chief/Media Critic: Mr. Badger
            CRYPT INFOSYSTEMS BBS:  818-683-0854
            INTERNET:  [e-mail]
            ------------------------------------

       IN THIS ISSUE:  The Virtual Unemployment Boom: The Bund
       Plays On & Your "Virtual Boss". . . Mr. Badger embarrasses
       himself with "The Joy of CyberSex" . . . the story on
       "Network Security Secrets" . . . CAJR (Computer Assisted
       Journalism Review) by Badger . . . KohnTark's News-Bites:
       untruth in advertising & dial a military simulation . . .
       Jim Lipshultz comments on corporate efforts to control virus
       programming through legislation . . . Manipulating volatile
       CMOS data with the K-CMOS virus . . . Firefly: an aggressively
       anti-anti-virus virus with a visual marker . . . much more.



       THE VIRTUAL UNEMPLOYMENT BOOM:  BAD CRAZINESS ON THE ROAD
       TO THE GREAT FREE-LANCE SOCIETY

       The electronic sweatshop is here to stay. Having crept upon
       us sometime around 1988, it now extends everywhere,
       much to the gut-clenching dismay of journeyman American
       computer programmers and techno-help who are now sharing a
       national harvest of sour, rotting fruit from the burgeoning
       "virtual workplace" they helped start.

       Ironically, according to a late November issue of The Los
       Angeles Times, they're being thrown out of work by an army
       of cheap free-lancers descending from the former Iron
       Curtain republics.  The Crypt Newsletter has already noted
       that Communist programmers from the eastern
       Soviet states and Bulgaria were - according to anti-virus
       software developers - so mad at a world which had passed them
       by, they bent themselves to the incredible task of incinerating
       the West's personal computers with an Old Testament-like
       plague of computer viruses.

       Although no solid statistical evidence existed to support
       this wild story, it was repeated often enough in popular science,
       news and computing magazines that it took on the patina
       of truth.

       The reality has been different.  With Communism gone, the
       same alleged disgruntled programmers have flooded into
       Southern California, providing a cheap, malleable
       pool of disorganized techno-labor.

       The programmers, residing in the US as "guests" are thought
       to number about 150,000 as compared to 1.5 million American
       software programmers.  The foreign nationals, unlike their
       American counterparts, will work for minimum wage and some
       California software developers like Sun Microsystems, which
       hired 50 Muscovites, and Borland International which used
       Hungarians to overhaul its ailing Quattro Pro package,
       have been quick to employ them.

       This has accelerated the trend toward the "virtual corporation"
       or completely free-lance society in which the only real employees
       of businesses are at the very top; where all other workers are
       reduced to catch-as-catch-can service vendors, with the bottom
       line bidding established by developing nation wage scales,
       wage scales incompatible with what most Americans feel constitutes
       an acceptable standard of living.  In California, programmers
       are merely the most recent citizens to be thrown to the jaws of
       a developing free-lance community.  Apparel, construction and
       manufacturing workers have been there for some time already,
       where they've been displaced by corporations which employ only
       immigrants. This has fostered a blame-the-aliens mentality,
       a mindset which blinds many to the real driving force, the idea
       of a totally free-lance work force.  That this would trash
       any spirit of community or the fabric of regular American
       society is not in the equation. Surprisingly, it has not been
       a matter for significant debate in the mainstream media.

       Perhaps the only data worth considering comes from the following
       table, reproduced by the Times and generated by one Casper Jones,
       a "Boston-based productivity consultant."

       The cost of computer code per relative cost/unit:

       Poland  $155.00
       Hungary $175.00
       Mexico  $200.00
       United States $1,000.00 (an approximately five-fold increase
                   over Hungarian and Mexican code)

       Management decisions become easy when the exhaust of human
       existence is reduced to the banality of three-digit numbers.
       In 1988, journalist Barbara Garson's "The Electronic
       Sweatshop" predicted 1993.

       Garson interviewed managers and decision-makers.  One told
       her computer programmers were mere process workers -
       interchangeable, easily replaced, reducible to mechanized cogs,
       only they hadn't yet realized it.

       According to Edward Youlden, management consultant and author
       of "The Decline and Fall of the American Programmer," it's
       essentially a bed we made, and now it's time to lay in it.
       American-designed software is kind of crappy and full of
       bugs.  "It's like the 1950's and 1960's, when we took it for
       granted autos would have defects," Youlden told The Times.

       In the conclusion of "The Electronic Sweatshop," Garson draws
       powerful comparison between the first industrial revolution
       and the creation of the automechanical, virtual workplace now
       being installed by US industry. "It was a horrible hundred
       years, justified in the name of progress," writes Garson.

       ". . . At this point, in the history of white collar automation,
       we can still discern some of the irrational, antihuman choices
       being made. A few years from now it will be difficult to see
       that there might have been other ways . . ."

       The current reduction of employees to free-lance, or at best,
       temporary tools shows a profound, unconscious contempt for
       the social contract on the part of American upper management.

       Finally, the electronic sweatshop, or virtual workplace,
       is arranged, according to Garson, "on the assumption that
       most people are lazy, stupid or hostile."

       THE VIRTUAL UNEMPLOYMENT BOOM II: FLOYD KEMSKE'S "THE
       VIRTUAL BOSS"

       Into the sucking void of the virtual workplace steps one of
       the best pieces of speculative fiction published
       this year, Floyd Kemske's "The Virtual Boss" (Catbird
       Press, $19.95).

       Kemske, who must sleep with his library of Franz Kafka
       novels (the alert will note the author's initials, "FK"),
       has created a near future where Barbara Garson's "The
       Electronic Sweatshop" is taken to its logical conclusion.
       It could easily be America in two years.

       D. F. Jones is the head of Information Accuracy, Inc.,
       a cryptic consulting and analysis firm in Boston. Jones
       has turned over the firm to complete supervision by
       an artificial intelligence software construct.  All workers
       report through terminals to the software. The software
       hectors them electronically, following employees into homes
       through computerized TV's and the average pc; it even
       interrupts the harried while they peck at bank ATM's on
       breaks.  One idiot savant, D. F. Jones's son, lurches about
       the building with a hand-held scanner, vacuuming all loose
       paperwork into the computer.  Workers cower and either try
       to commit everything to memory or construct elaborate plans
       to avoid the scanner man.  Petty notes wind up in the
       computer's memory, used to bully workers into frightened
       submission with the ultimate threat: "You'll lose your job."

       [Aside: Those who enjoy their humor twisted and
       sardonic may recall D. F. Jones was the author of "Colossus:
       The Forbin Project," that sci-fi novel which presupposed
       mankind's affairs being completely supervised by military
       supercomputer. Forbin, who installed Colossus, like
       "The Virtual Boss's" D. F. Jones, was writ as a social misfit,
       incapable of even keeping his wife's interest.  Colossus, like
       D. F. Jones's company system in "Virtual Boss," metamorphoses
       into its instigator's father confessor.]

       Jones has put the system in place, not because he knows anything
       about technology or computers per se, but because he hates
       dealing with people, period.  The distrust springs from a series
       of disastrous jobs where Jones himself worked for inhuman
       creeps, or was a complete management failure.

       An early telemarketing job puts Jones under a pig martinet named
       Bernard who rants, "Go down your list and call each one.  Ask
       him if he needs assistance in grabbing his ass with both hands.
       Tell him we've got well-educated and highly-credentialed
       ass-grabbers who will come to his fucking institution and show
       him how to do it.  Tell him that some of them are even capable
       of remaining sober for the occasion and many of them have never
       been in jail.  Got that?"

       Jones stumbles into the top position at Information
       Accuracy and proceeds to alienate or dismiss every one of the
       current employees except for Linda, a brainlessly chattering
       systems programmer. Jones and Linda get it on, which encourages
       Linda to suggest installing the management software.  Jones
       digs the idea, strongly believing that employees not pressed
       into atomized, isolated labor exist only to slow
       the rush to profit.  Linda, of course, is dismissed
       by the software after it no longer needs her tweaking.
       Symbolically, she gets canned after the system backs
       itself up successfully onto an old, creaky tape drive. By
       then the programmer is suffering brain-clamping panic
       seizures at the prospect of having to grapple with the want
       ads, this world's lowest ring of Hell.

       "The Virtual Boss" is a pearl of great price, humorous and
       absorbing but black as sack cloth.  And it portrays software
       and computers as they are: The "Virtual Boss" does not talk,
       it is not multimedia; there are no virtual reality Wehrmacht
       helmets, no mirror shades, no shimmering holograms, no cyborg
       brain sockets which spring from "the matrix" - just
       the subliminal hum of the monitor, the empty blinking of the
       cursor, the exploding shadow box and implacable artificial
       intelligence of software, throttling the spirit until
       it liquifies into thin, characterless gruel.

       APPENDIX: SOME FINAL NOTES FOR YOUR VIRTUAL UNEMPLOYMENT
       BOOM CLIPBOARD

       >>Philips Electronics in Dordrecht, Netherlands, recently
       announced it would move equipment and jobs to Hungary,
       taking advantage of lower wages in eastern Europe.  Forty
       of a staff of 300 at the Dordrecht factory would be canned by
       the move.  The factory manufactures drive motors for
       video recorders, CD players and computers.

       >>IBM Deutschland announced in November it would
       eliminate 9,500 jobs by 1995, more than one third of
       its current work force.  Worldwide, IBM has stated it will
       cut at least 85,000.


       IN THE READING ROOM: "THE JOY OF CYBERSEX" AND
       MR. BADGER - TOWARD A NEW CAD (Computer Assisted
       Degradation) PARADIGM

       Mr. Badger has just returned from an extended trip to
       Wyoming.  As the lamas of eastern lore, I have ascended
       the snowy peaks and meditated upon the nature of truth
       while subjecting the body to a rigid denial of fleshy
       desires.

       I descend from the mountains kinder of disposition and
       purer of heart. So, of course, this review is about smut.
       Cybersmut, precisely: a review of a book about "cybersex."
       But, paradoxically, much of the book, called "The Joy of
       CyberSex," is spent explaining how "cybersex" doesn't
       really exist.  Have I lost you yet? Thought so.  Let me
       start anew. But pay attention, because I'm only going to
       explain it once.

       "The Joy of CyberSex" is published by Brady.  Subtitled as
       "The Underground Guide to Electronic Erotica," it features
       the kind of pithy cover blurbs which beg for a Crypt
       Newsletter review.

       "Disk Inside!  Erotic fun and games with 'Strip Poker Three'
       and 'Jigsaw Pinups!'"

       "Reviews of the 'steamiest' software and adult CD-ROMs,"
       "Keyhole views into the backrooms of more than 30 online
       bulletin boards," "Computers and Sex?  That's right - you
       no longer need a warm-blooded partner to attain the heights
       of sexual pleasure and fantasy.  In fact, these days all
       you need is some RAM, a few quick strokes on your keyboard,
       and a good color monitor. With 'The Joy of CyberSex,' computer
       terms such as 'hard drive,' 'interfacing,' and 'spreadsheets'
       will take on totally new and provocative meanings.  You'll
       discover the new wild and steamy world of digital erotica -
       how to tune in and get turned on!  From the relatively
       tame online services, to the frontiers of the sexually
       bizarre and explicitly interactive, you'll find your
       every desire satisfied."

       Astute readers will have already divined everything they need
       to know about this book.  Are you an astute reader?  Sharpen
       your #2 pencils then, class, because mixed with
       the various points I feel compelled to make, there is
       another Crypt Newsletter pop quiz in store.

       Now, by the spirits of Babbage, Boole, and von Neumann, how
       long must we suffer with atrocious syntax in computer
       related books?  Does the acquaintance with binary
       numbers somehow destroy the brain cells that store vital
       details of English grammar?  Is a book that sells for
       $24.95 not worth proofreading?

       So, in Question #1:  Which of the following does NOT
       appear in the first ten pages of "The Joy of CyberSex?"

          a. "A computer with a modem that just sits there,
          stupid and silent, waiting for you to call up a
          telecommunications program."

          b. "Take a picture from a from your own collection,
          scan it, and then it's on your disk."

          c. "Either way, to avoid racking up excessive on-line
          charges mulling over file options, it's a smart idea to
          first the text file that catalogs and describes
          the various files."

    Answer:  C -- it appears on page thirteen.  I admit, it was
    a trick question.

    Next: Why, oh why, do writers keep coming up with such ludicrous
    techno-jargon?

    Even more vexing: Why do the authors create ridiculous words
    for things that don't exist? Has the Dr. Seuss library become
    required reading in classes on writing about technology?

    Question #2:  Which of the following terms is NOT used in
    "The Joy of CyberSex?"

          a. Teledildonics

          b. Neuromimetic Sexual Experience

          c. Cyberlex

          d. CAM -- Computer Assisted Masturbation

    Answer:  D -- Another trick question! I made it up!
    "Masturbation," however, is almost unused in
    the book; I could find it only three times, courtesy
    of Nick, founder of NixPix, an adult BBS, in interview with
    him.  It's odd the authors of "CyberSex" don't refer
    to masturbation more. How curious that they speak of
    dirty talk via telephone and modem as "Cybersex."
    Imagery, by CD-ROM, .GIF, etc. -  are all "Cybersex."
    But not masturbation.

    Sorry to be old-fashioned, mates, but the Oxford English
    Dictionary calls this "masturbation."  Let me offer a
    guideline for those still lost:

    Look down.  Is it your hand?  If so, it's "masturbation."

    As for "teledildonics," I already know that it has been used
    by WELL icons like Howard Rheingold.  It's STILL ridiculous, a
    close second to "Cyberlex," this book's way of providing
    "Quickie definitions of on-line communications terms."
    Stupid me.  I thought these things were called glossaries.

    Which brings us to our next question.  How did the authors
    manage to make erotica sound so nerdy?

    Question #3:  Which of the following quotes is NOT found
    in "The Joy of CyberSex?"

          a. "Hooking the modem up is pretty easy - see the
          modem manual.  It will will tell you to plug the
          modem inside the computer or to some jack on its
          back (things are getting frisky already!)."

          b. "Computers have wonderful little openings, and so
          do you and I.  And a truly arousing experience on
          our friendly machines often requires something slipping
          in and out . . . You also need to 'turn on' the
          machine before it'll do anything nice.  The analogy
          between the roles of software telling the computer what
          it will be, and what it will be able to do, to that
          of sperm carrying its own DNA messages is also obvious.
          So too is the analogy between the computer's operating
          system at one receiving end, and a woman's egg at the
          other."

          c. "If you're looking for some discreet companions
          into poker and good fellowship, then check out Kami
          and her pals in "Strip Poker Three."

          "It looks somewhat cruder (technically speaking) than
          the strip poker in the 'Fox Pack,' but it gets down
          to bare essentials a whole lot faster. Here's to good
          times, Ace."

          d. "Liquor in the front, poker in the rear."

    Answer:  D. The first three are in the book.  The
    "Joy of CyberSex" has more gayly arch
    nudge-nudge-wink-wink paragraphs than I could stand
    to quote.

    "CyberSex" also exhibits such mutually contradictory
    approaches that multiple personalities would be an
    advantage in reading it.

    I can imagine a meeting at Brady where everybody had
    a little input:

    Editor:  This is hot.  We can capitalize on sex, the
    oldest motivating factor of all. And on the information
    highway, one of the biggest news stories of the year.

    Lawyer:  We can't get too explicit, though.  We don't
    want to risk publishing anything that could be
    considered pornography by local community standards.

    Author:  People _want_ to hear about the underground
    BBS's and we can say a lot about the available graphics.

    Publisher:  But we can't risk being held up by Pat
    Robertson on the 700 Club. We do need to keep the
    readers interest, though.

    In the end, everybody got what they wanted in "CyberSex,"
    except the reader, who is stuck with the type of humor
    normally not seen outside of comic book conventions.

    Mentioning comic book conventions brings me to the
    "Hot Disk!"  What kind of segue is that, you ask?


    Comic books and computer disks are the only two
    items in the world that, having no intrinsic worth,
    become valuable when placed in plastic or mylar sleeves.

    Which brings us to our fourth and final test
    question:

    Question #4:  The Joy of CyberSex Fantasy Disk:


               a. Contains a couple of crippled computer
               programs.

               b. Tries to sell you mail-order copies of the
               real programs.

               c. Is all of the above, AND so boring that it
               is now accepted anesthesia in most major
               hospitals.

    Answer: C. Two programs are included:  Strip Poker Three
    and Jigsaw Pinups.  Strip Poker Three can only be
    described in Artworx Software's own words:

    "There are three opponents to play against. Switch
    the opponent display at any time by clicking the mouse
    on the smaller opponent to swap opponents.  Point
    and click the mouse (left button) to select bet options,
    bet amounts and cards to discard.

    "The demo ends when each opponent loses three articles of
    clothing.

    "The retail version, of course, goes much further.
    Since this is just a demo, once a computer opponent loses
    an article of clothing, all you get to see is the smaller
    window image; the main image remains the same."

    What does the "retail version" cost?  Again, in their
    own words:

    "We are making a special half-price offer to purchasers
    of CYBERSEX: purchase STRIP POKER PROFESSIONAL at the
    regular $49.95 and you can purchase any DATA DISK,
    JIGSAW PINUPS or CENTERFOLD SQUARES for HALF PRICE!!!

    "Each DATA DISK for STRIP POKER PROFESSIONAL has two new
    opponents. There are six DATA DISKs.  The retail price
    for each DATA DISK is $24.95.  You can purchase any or
    all six DATA DISKs for just $12.50 each!!!"

    Let's see here:  Seventy-five dollars ($74.50 off
    the retail price!) will buy pictures of 12 women.  An
    additional fifty dollars will buy the program
    to see the pictures.  Then the purchaser will then have
    to play a silly-assed game of poker as these pictures
    slowly become more and more revealing.  And for
    some reason readers of "The Joy of Cybersex" will
    want to do this instead of just going to the newsstand
    and buying twenty to twenty-five Playboys/Penthouses
    (normal price $4.95, special issues $5.95) for the
    same amount of money.

    If, somehow, these quotes and facts haven't seemed funny
    to you, JIGSAW PINUPS may be for you.  On sale to
    "Joy of Cybersex" readers for only $15.00 (regular
    price $29.95), it lets you assemble pictures and
    ". . . each pinup has a number of HOT SPOTS, which
    elicit a response (kiss, giggle, etc.) . . . when a
    piece is placed containing one, the sound is made, and
    when the puzzle is complete, pinup makes a comment.
    You may touch the HOT SPOTS for responses or click
    RIGHT mouse button to have pinup repeat comment."

    Again, for consumer purposes, $15.00 will buy the
    next three year's worth of Sports Illustrated's swimsuit
    issue.

    "The Joy of CyberSex" had a number of contributors, and
    one of them saved this book from being a total waste.
    Part three of "CyberSex," entitled "Mama Told Me Not to
    Come:  Over the Lines and Across the Boards" was
    written by Nancy Tamosaitis.  As a review of
    twenty-eight "adult" boards, I had expected
    a rehash of BBS ads.  Tamosaitis did much better by
    not only choosing a wide range of systems to review
    but by also capturing the feel and tone of each with
    deft choices in republished electronic mail posts from
    the systems profiled.

    This section was larger than all the other chapters
    combined, and it deserved more room.  Providing breadth
    and depth without gilding the lily is something of
    an abandoned art in American journalism. To see it
    practiced is a pleasure.

    The rest of the chapters included an overview of
    computer usage, reviews of CD-ROM videos, CD-ROM picture
    collections, computer games, computer magazines
    and virtual reality.  By the end of the book, where
    there are reviews of hardcopy magazines such as Wired,
    Mondo 2000, and Future Sex, one gets the feeling that
    somebody was really reaching for filler.  This
    is probably due to the writers having so little to examine.

    CD-ROM videos, for instance, are fighting a poor scan
    rate that makes their movies appear clunky.

    And CD-ROM picture collections are not sufficiently
    different or superior to old fashioned porno magazines.
    Interactive computer games still leave much to be desired
    as emulations of sex, much less as a substitute for it.
    In fact, to say they emulate sex at all is specious.

    Regular Crypt readers already know that virtual reality
    can barely imitate a walk around the kitchen, much less
    offer a simulacrum that can match the body's ability
    to feel heat, pressure, and texture.  All in all,
    "The Joy of CyberSex" turns out to be content that
    can't live up to the hype.

    Rather obvious, though, don't you think?

    BOOKS RECEIVED:

    >>"On the Cutting Edge of Technology" multiple authors, Sams
    Publishing; $22.95

    A collection of articles on "gee-whiz" technology.  If it's
    a buzz word, "Cutting Edge" has a chapter on it: fractals,
    fuzzy logic, morphing, artificial life, and so on. Ask
    your local library to get it as a good basic introduction.
    Better yet, buy it and donate it to your local high school.

    >>"Morphing Magic" by Scott Anderson, Sams Publishing; $29.95.
    >>"The Magic of Image Processing" by Mike Morrison, Sams
    Publishing, $39.95.

    Both authors contributed to "On the Cutting Edge of Technology."
    As the titles indicate, Anderson's book concentrates on
    morphing and Morrison's covers a wider range of image
    manipulation.

    "Morphing Magic" includes source code for C programmers wishing
    to experiment.  It also packs a fair amount of
    math needed to understand this, so if the world of
    Cartesian coordinates sends you into apoplectic seizures,
    forwarned is forarmed.  The accompanying disk includes simple
    morphing software, the author's own movie player and some images
    to toy with.

    "The Magic of Image Processing" takes a more relaxed, less
    technical approach:  Crypt readers can take a clue from the
    diskettes, which contain only programs that work inside
    Windows.
    ------------------------------------------------------------

    "NETWORK SECURITY SECRETS" BENEFITS FROM PUBLIC ACCESS
    INFORMATION ON THE DEPARTMENT OF TREASURY'S 'UNDERGROUND'
    SECURITY BULLETIN BOARD SYSTEM

    "Network Security Secrets," by David Stang, Ph.D., and
    Sylvia Moon, (IDG Books, $49.95) is the first mainstream
    publication which benefits directly from the accumulated
    data on Kim Clancy's Dept. of Treasury bulletin board
    system (AIS), gagged earlier this year.

    Those unfamiliar with the case only need to know a bulletin
    board supervised by the Department of Treasury contained
    unadulterated hacker files which were given to callers
    interested in the material. Other computer security workers
    and anti-virus developers mounted a smear campaign which
    landed in the pages of The Washington Post, causing the
    system to withdraw the information.  The original argument
    had been that it was information which would most benefit
    security managers unable to find the material elsewhere.
    The publication of "Network Security Secrets," proves
    the argument a valid one, although it tries hard to deny
    it.

    In keeping with the political correctness of the times
    (read _hypocrisy_), the book fails to directly cite the
    material gathered from the Dept. of Treasury system
    while reprinting portions of it essentially verbatim.

    Of course, this makes "Network Security Secrets" a very
    interesting read.

    One of Stang's central points in "Security Secrets" is that
    good security stems from bringing necessary information
    to the workers employed where the rubber meets the road.
    This practice, he writes, is often opposed to management
    interested only in imposing a rigid heirarchical structure
    on the workplace.  The workers who will have to deal with
    security problems such as intrusion from desk-top
    dial-ups, password and access control plus the occasional
    virus aren't thought to be trustworthy enough to be
    brought into the information loop.

    "Network Security Secrets" says this is bad and it's correct.

    Consequently, where does quality information come from; where
    is it gathered?

    In the chapter "Bulletin Boards and Security" under "Looking
    at the Dark Side," Stang published a screen display taken from
    the Department of Treasury, of which he says, "We doubt
    the agency was aware of this part of its board," which
    presumes quite a bit, incorrectly, I might add.

    In any case, "This part of the board" lists the hacking
    files culled from  PHRACK and other underground journals
    and BBS's. The data addresses viruses, telephonic and network
    security concerns. "Manly Hacking" is one such entry.
    Written by "Shit-Kicking Jim," it was only found on Clancy's
    sytem prior to publication in a later issue of PHRACK.

    "Network Security Secrets" also reprints an underground
    document gained from AIS called "Hacking Novell Local
    Area Networks" and marks it with one of those happy
    little icons computer books are seeded with to satisfy
    readers whose reading comprehension is deemed not much
    beyond "First Grade Coloring Book Exercises."

    The icon is a treasure chest marked "Secret:  This icon
    points to information which gives some special insight
    into network security."

    The book also republishes material on network hacking
    programs NETCRACK and GETIT, a resident password and
    keystroke leech, all gained from AIS.

    So that answers the question: Yes, information written
    by the computer underground is valuable, worthy of
    exposure in a $50 mainstream computer volume.

    By the same token, Stang writes, "This is a sensitive
    subject, and some may argue the information may land into
    the wrong hands. We'll argue that it's already in the
    wrong hands and the 'good guys' need to know what
    they're up against."  And that's the same argument Treasury
    used to defend AIS, a system Stang labels from "the Dark
    Side." What a poor sport!

    Stang and Moon wrestle on and off with the idea of
    information access throughout the book, coming down
    more in favor of those who weirdly think that by publishing
    such information, you somehow endorse it.

    They mention book publishers who specialize in so-called
    fringe subjects as lock-picking and personal revenge.
    "No, we won't give you their address!" they write.

    In the same paragraph "Network Security" mentions
    "Make 'Em Pay," one paperback devoted to practical jokes
    and payback techniques.  Published by Lyle Stuart, I
    found "Make 'Em Pay" in the humor section of Crown
    Books, the largest generic bookstore chain in
    California. So much for the stone reality of access
    control, a reality which corporate management appears to
    work hard to ignore.

    Despite these major idiosyncracies, "Network Security
    Secrets" is still a better than average book on the
    subject.  Stang works hard to avoid jargon, failing
    only when he hands off to someone else in a chapter on
    encryption: ". . . the DES was promulgated by NIST to
    provide a system that protects the confidentiality
    and integrity of the federal government's sensitive
    unclassified computer information.  FIPS PUB 46 is
    based on work at IBM and has been approved as the
    American National Standard X3.92-1981/R1987."
    Sadly, it appears there will never be a shortage of
    computer writers who specialize in jargo-hackese.

    "Network Security Secrets" also sports a slight,
    dry sense of humor. On bulletin boards, Stang writes
    "Does the software include the use of a SYSOP-editable
    trashcan file of caller names that are immediately
    ejected ('hacker,' 'crap,' 'John Dvorak," and so
    on)?"  I had to laugh at that one.

    At $50, even with two diskettes, "Network Security" isn't
    cheap.  But it does give you your money's worth as
    a reasonably detailed overview of PC network security.

    [Addendum: Stang, who represents Norman Data Defense
    Systems, was the man the Secret Service called when its
    networks were contaminated with the Satan Bug virus.]

    ---------------------------------------------------------

    MR. BADGER ON CAJR: COMPUTER ASSISTED JOURNALISM
    REVIEW (pronounced "caj-ur," accent on the first
    syllable)

    As readers of the last issue may recall, I had
    rather harsh comments for two of this nation's
    "differently-abled" minorities: journalists and
    trekies.  That was good, because they're scum.

    But the mysterious and invisible powers that administer
    the steel-toed boots of retribution to all tellers
    of truth have cast their eyes upon the lowly Mr. Badger.
    Caught digging holes where no badger has dug before,
    I find myself reviewing not one, but TWO articles
    from separate journalism magazines.  But more
    pyschologically troubling, honesty forces me to review
    an entire book filled with characters from
    "Star Trek:  The Next Generation."

    The first piece was printed in the November/December issue
    of the Columbia Journalism Review.  Written by Katherine
    Fulton and entitled "Future Tense: The Anxious Journey of a
    Technophobe," this article is a miniature Horatio
    Alger story of one journalist's rise from technophobe
    to technophile.

    It's fairly easy to empathize with a seasoned editor -
    ten years experience - who suddenly tries to grasp the
    significance of computer technology while
    at Harvard.  I think most readers would enjoy this tale
    because Fulton exhibits two classic traits of a hacker:
    A willingness to get in over one's head, and a desire to
    figure out whether the "authorities" are full of crap.
    Her three-point advice to fellow journalists ought
    to be embossed on computer monitors across the country:

          - Put your feet up [a reading list]
          - Get paid to learn
          - Explore

    Fulton recommends "Wired" magazine [ . . . pause,
    while we wait for the local authorities to talk Urnst into
    relinquishing the clawhammer he's brandishing crazily],
    but she's a beginner and just hasn't had the opportunity
    to read the Crypt Newletter.  Mr. Badger will grade on
    a curve and give the article a solid A+ [once Urnst
    puts that gun metal claw tool down].

    For those interested, there is also an article on
    "Newsweek InterActive," a CD-ROM version of Newsweek.
    Bah!

    The November AJR features a piece called "Small Paper, Big
    Project."  It's written by Christopher Feola, "technological
    guru" for The Waterbury Republican-American, a mid-sized
    daily in Connecticut.

    Normally, Mr. Badger gives a heavy penalty stroke to
    "technological gurus" that have their picture taken with
    an unopened Microsoft Windows box in the foreground.
    But anybody who has convinced a newspaper publisher to
    pay for two thousand dollar laptops for staff reporters
    deserves no small measure of respect.  (It has been rumored
    that newspaper publishers originally invented copper wire
    by pinching pennies so hard they had to find something
    new to do with the deformed coins, now extruded to
    gossamer length.)

    [Note bene:  Yes, Crypt readers, the above is true.  In 1823,
    the NPAA applied for a patent on the "wire editor" but
    was turned down by the US Patent Office on the grounds that
    it's impossible to patent people.  "Wire editor"
    eventually came to have a different meaning altogether:
    the person in charge of making sense of the nonsense that
    comes in on the "information highway."]

    Examples of Feola's good sense and advice
    abound. To whit:

    "Look around your newsroom.  Somewhere there is a computer.
    That's the one you need to get started.  There are lots of
    great reasons for this:  You should start with basic
    software, most of which runs on just about any machine you
    can find; and you're a lot more likely to get management to
    pop for new equipment once you've started showing what you
    can do with it.

    " . . . there are always three more things you need before
    you start doing computer-assisted journalism: a faster
    computer, a bigger disk drive to store your data and better
    software . . . Get on with it.

    "In the end, readers just don't care if you do a story on
    a multi-millon dollar Cray or a $3.98 calculator - as long
    as it's interesting."

    That's great advice from a mainstream journalist.  Amazing.
    What will be next, righteous televangelists?  Honest
    politicians?  Efficient government?

    The only thing wrong is AJR's editors letting Feola get away
    with fool-speak like "computer-assisted journalism," which
    I've noticed sneakily sneaking into other publications.
    What?  Doing your stories on the dumb terminal linked to the
    editorial mainframe isn't "computer-assisted journalism"?
    Filing from remote through the Tandy in 1989 (early Radio
    Shack portable with modem for you simpletons) wasn't "CAJ"?
    Using Telenet/Tymnet services to get at the VU/TEXT data
    retrieval system wasn't computer-assisted?  Were the Keebler
    elves doing all of it?  May a computer virus eat your
    lead-in.

    What "computer-assisted journalism" really
    means is this:  Reporters and editors are finally
    hammering their skills into line with reality.
    End of rant, we now resume regular transmission.

    Last, and least, is the book "20th Century Computers
    and How They Worked:  The Official Starfleet History of
    Computers" (Alpha Books), written by Jennifer Flynn.

    It is touted as the textbook for use at "Starfleet Academy."
    The "research" was done by "Lt. Commander Data, Operations
    Manager, U.S.S. Enterprise."  So you get the idea:
    a presentation similar to a Time-Life book on how computers
    work laced with "Star Trek: TNG" ambience.

    Readers will not be shocked to hear that Mr. Badger wants
    to bring back the inflatable punching bag (you know, the kind
    with a bean bag at the bottom that little kids used to hit
    so they could watch it bounce back). New versions are to carry
    the image of Gene Roddenberry and be placed in all
    pre-school and kindergarten centers.  There we will instill
    in impressionable young minds the one true foundation of
    western civilization:  Don't give nerds an excuse to
    congregate OR the right to assemble.

    Readers _will_ be shocked and amused, however, by the fact
    Mr. Badger actually enjoyed "20th Century Computers."  Oh,
    it's full of Star Trek quotes, Star Trek pictures, more Star
    Trek quotes, Star Trek diagrams, more Star Trek quotes, and
    even finishes with an appendix of Star Trek "technical
    notes."

    Regrettably, it's filled with Star Trek humor, too.

    "One major disadvantage to using dot-matrix printers was
    the noise they made . . . A colleague of mine who runs a
    museum showed me one of these early printer devices . . . and
    after hearing it work, I must say it's a wonder that human
    hearing ever survived the twentieth century.

    --Dr. Kate Pulaski, M.D., Starfleet Medical"

    Ha. Ha. Ha.

    Wry references like it litter the book.  My personal
    favorite was in miniscule print by a diagram of how a CD-ROM
    worked:

        "Pursuant to Starfleet T.K.O. #1363K05/1
        Approved for Publication Stardate 46588.24
        Declassified Information"

    Intentional or not, I enjoyed seeing that disclaimer by
    numerous items like monitors and processor boards. I guess
    the editors are cynical enough to realize the National
    Security Agency will still be playing a role in "security"
    matters in the far future.

    Yes, "20th Century Computers" is geeky and I am shamed.
    But the actual computer instruction was comparable to
    the "Intro to Computers" class Mr. Badger was force-fed
    at the local technical college. And the production
    values were better, too.  And no, I will not speak about
    this again.  Ever.
    --------------------------------------------------------------

    OF INTEREST:  IRON JOE BOB BRIGGS, A HACKER?

    Really bored?  Then grab a copy of the just out in paperback
    "Iron Joe Bob" by drive-in movie raconteur Joe Bob Briggs
    (Atlantic Monthly, $12.00).

    Joe Bob is a man's man with the answer to why the Western World
    is run by wimps. Think of him as a modern day Spengler,
    only you don't get all the dense prose and phil-O-ZAW-fi-GULL
    neologisms. That's right!  This is just the book for those
    who like a daily draught of Arkansas polio weed.

    In "Iron Joe Bob,"  Joe Bob timetables the national erosion
    of privacy:

    "1973:  All men are entitled to all information about their
    government.

    1976: All men are entitled to all information about their
    government and their politicians and anybody running for
    office.

    1980: All men are entitled to know everything about anybody
    who's running for office, in office or just a big shot.

    1984: All men are entitled to know everything about anybody
    who's rich.

    1987: All men are entitled to know everything about anybody
    who's a movie star or athlete or anything else where it seems
    like they're getting way too much money for whatever feeble
    thing it is that they do.

    1991: All men are entitled to know everything about everybody."

    Man, it really makes sense when it's written like that.

    Joe Bob also knows why plastic pen pocket-protecter packing
    programmers like Bill Gates can't be trusted, too.

    "The guy who scores 1500 on his SATs.  These people are
    psychopaths.  They've spent seventeen thousand hours
    at a computer terminal by the age of twelve, and they will
    never have any social skills until at least the age of
    fifty-five, when they're on their fourth wife.  They're
    the kind of people who insult everyone around them - not
    because they're trying to but because they're not paying
    attention.  They're so proud of their minds, they have no
    hearts.  They're great for talking about black holes -
    because they are black holes.

    "We tried these guys . . . They worked at Los Alamos
    during the war.  We're still trying to clean up after
    'em."

    Ha!  Urnst Kouch says "Iron Joe Bob" is hot because if
    you know what I'm talking about, and I THINK YOU DO,
    it has everything you want to read, including: nekkid
    ladies, lezzie fu, beer and a whisky fu, hooker fu,
    liberal bashin' fu and conservative stompin' fu.  Five
    stars. Check it out.

    SHE'S A MUST TO AVOID:

    In what must be the most fatuous use of computers this
    month, TIME - the glossy newsmagazine for Philistines
    and zero-brain tallywhackers, employed morphing software
    to blend 40 anonymously perfect models into "The New
    Face of America."  Although astonishing to the editors,
    "The New Face of America" looked suspiciously like any
    of the 40 or so anonymously perfect models now preferred
    by MTV, women's fashion magazines and the stinko
    cologne/perfume ads which making reading publications
    controlled by the aristocracy such a drag.

    With the sunny, self-congratulatory tone which is de facto
    style for the magazine, editor James R. Gaines wrote,
    "As onlookers watched the image of our new Eve begin to
    appear on the computer screen, several staff members promptly
    fell in love.  Said one: 'It really breaks my heart she
    doesn't exist." We sympathize with our lovelorn colleagues,
    but even technology has its limits. This is a love that
    must forever remain unrequited." [Violins swell in background.]

    Crypt Newsletters recommends lovelorn readers impress TIME
    editors with the limits of postal technology, perhaps by
    remitting a small wax-sealed parcel of dried, pressed roadkill
    as a unique token of unrequited appreciation.
    --------------------------------------------------------------


    NEWS-BITES
    by K$hntark


    SOFTWARE UPGRADES: UNTRUTH IN ADVERTISING, PEACE IS WAR,
    2 + 2 = 3, ETC.

    A couple of months ago, Central Point Software sent to all of
    its registered customers a full color upgrade brochure that
    included PCTOOLS v8.0a for DOS, PCTOOLS for Windows V1.0,
    Central Point Antivirus (CPAV) V2.0 and others.

    What caught my eye about the new CPAV 2.0 were these claims:

    "Central Point Antivirus is the only product that
    uses an expert system to detect new viruses. . ." and
    "The analyze feature is quite extraordinary . . . it is one
    of the best pieces of software I have ever seen," credited
    to Simon Shepherd, of the United Kingdom Computer Virus
    Certification Center." [One wonders what the organization
    actually does, certify computer viruses?  For what?]

    Fair enough.

    But I was curious. How could something like CPAV 1.4,
    the first program to use - and I am not making this up,
    an "Idiot-System" - suddenly develop into something
    that claims to be the only software to use an expert system?
    (Note that both Frisk Software's F-Prot and Thunderbyte's TBAV
    use the mouthful, "rule-based heuristic analysis," which
    currently passes for "expert systems" INSIDE the industry.) I
    guess Americans have a better marketing sense than these
    Icelanders and Dutchmen. And a taste for carefully chosen
    dissembling that sells product.

    When I compared prices between CPAV V2.0 ($29.95) and
    PCTOOLS V8.0a ($49.95) and considered that the PCTOOLS
    advertisement mentions "Included are the same backup and
    AntiVirus Utilities we sell separately . . ." I decided to
    purchase PCTOOLS V8.0a.

    After a quick delivery, I tore open the package and
    tried the version of CPAV included in PCTOOLS on my set of
    anti-heuristic viruses. Strangely, I could not find the
    famous "analyze" feature; nor could I find anything in the
    documentation about the hyped "expert system."

    I noticed, too, that when the program was run, either on
    command line mode or on the menu system, the version
    of the program was unseen, except when you pull
    down the "about" choice from the main screen.

    I found that the version of CPAV that comes with PCTOOLS 8.0a
    is version 1.4 and NOT the one advertised in the brochure
    (version 2.0). This is sold separately.

    The trick is simple, the purpose clear: When the average
    user sees the ad they will purchase PCTOOLS thinking they
    are getting the latest version of the utilities sold
    separately.

    When the difference in versions is noticed, if
    ever, it might be too late to return the product
    and it will be time to purchase the newer, separate
    version of CPAV out of fear since "Every month, over 100
    NEW viruses threaten to destroy your data," according to
    Central Point Software. (We wondered where those 100 NEW
    destructive viruses are coming from, since the
    virus-programming groups now seem to be writing politically
    correct "good" viruses . . . Imagine! Politically correct
    viruses! Another reason to damn the neo-intellectual
    shoeshine boys and girls of US academia! But that's a story
    for another day. Anyway, I guess 100 Jerusalem
    variants count as "NEW.") Unfortunately, none of the original
    investment in Central Point software is preserved.

    This spells: More cash money to Central Point Software and,
    clever marketing trick, read S-C-A-M, to the customers.

    Irate users that might have fallen into the trap of
    deceptive advertising, are greeted with the following from
    Central Point Customer Service telephone representatives:  "I am
    sorry, but to get CPAV 2.0, you must purchase it
    separately."

    When an explanation is asked as to why this was not stated
    anywhere in the upgrade brochure/advertisement the following
    number was given in order to "Register a complaint":
    503-690-8088.

    After calling this number (No 800 number to register
    a complaint?) I didn't received any rationalization, or
    even an explanation!

    As this article went to press, I received yet another
    advertising brochure from Central Point Software selling
    PC Tools Pro, which NOW contains Central Point
    Anti-virus 2.0

    Conclusion: From now on, I will be upgrading this software via
    a local pirate system.

    Central Point has inadvertantly given idiot potency to
    the following phrase, popular among software thieves: Copy
    that floppy! Please do not report me to the Business Software
    Association, dear reader.

    DIAL A MILITARY SIMULATION

    The US Army is making details of its computer models and
    simulations available to anyone with a modem and an IBM
    compatible computer, Bloomberg Business News reported.

    The Models and Simulations Army Integrated Catalog, or
    MOSAIC, provides "a central comprehensive catalog of existing
    Army models and simulations," the Army says. Downloading
    information from MOSAIC is free.

    "They can get information from our combat, medical,
    training, or educational models, or on almost anything the
    Army models," said MOSAIC administrator Wanda Wharton. None
    of this information is classified. MOSAIC can be accessed
    with a 2400-baud modem by dialing [phone] or with a
    9600-baud device at [phone].

    Source: NEWSDAY, Thursday November 4, 1993.

    --------------------------------------------------------

    A READER CHAMPIONS THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT,
    INDEPENDENT VIRUS RESEARCHERS AND THE 1ST AMENDMENT

    On June 28th (Vol.7, Issue 16, P.26) of this year, Federal
    Computer Week published an article by John Stein Monroe
    entitled "McAfee Champions Virus Protection".  I must take
    exception to many of the statements ascribed to Mr. McAfee.

    In the interview, Mr. McAfee asserts that:

    "...the government is less willing than any other user group
     in the country to openly address its computer virus problem."

    I cannot help but ask the following:  How does it serve
    Anti-Virus Product Developers (AVPDs) to know the approximate
    number of microcomputer virus incidents affecting the
    federal government over the past year?  Would the information
    be used to scare the public into thinking that they are
    doomed to some kind of virus-related catastrophe if they do
    not buy anti-virus software?  I have to wonder if AVPD
    figureheads like Mr. McAfee are really crying out, like
    Henny-Penny, "THE SKY IS FALLING!" in hope of boosting
    sales.

    Next, Mr. McAfee states that:

    "By keeping mum, the government is making it difficult to
     contain the problem . . . Vendors and researchers who could
     help address the problems can't fight what they can't see.
     If the government doesn't open up and cooperate with the
     anti-virus community, knowledge of the viruses never reaches
     the research community. Before we can get our hands around
     the problem, [government agencies] must be open about the
     scale of the problem."

    This argument is incredibly weak!  Surely we are not so
    ignorant as to believe the last sentence in the quote?  As I
    see it, Mr. McAfee is trying to say that if the federal
    government collectively gave accurate information on all
    virus infections, he and other vendors could then stop virus
    infections by using the statistical data collected
    (excuse me while I break away from the keyboard for a good
    long laugh!).  What he really means is that this information
    would be used to promote his product so sales and stock
    prices would increase (simple Econ 101).  Isn't that what
    good marketing and being in business is all about?

    Other statements made in the interview illustrate an opinion
    I've held for quite a while: That there really is no BIG
    virus epidemic, contrary to what the public has been led to
    believe.

    "Part of the struggle in the industry is convincing computer
    users that the problems exist," said McAfee. "Virus awareness
    has grown in stages . .  . we have turned the corner a number
    of times."

    The first turn, said McAfee, was in 1989, when the national
    press picked up the story of a virus expected to hit users
    nationwide.

    But the virus, Datacrime, "did not amount to much of
    anything, which put off the press for some time."

    The next turn came in February 1992, when several
    computer vendors shipped products infected with the
    so-called Michelangelo virus . . ."

    At this point, Federal Communications Week failed to report
    that nothing significant happened then either!  It must be
    hard to convince computer users they have a virus problem
    when major infections are rare. Of course, it doesn't help
    that the AVPDs themselves have been guilty of crying
    "Wolf!" a few times too many.

    Two years ago analysts in the antivirus field were
    predicting a geometric explosion of viruses, with over
    30,000 new variants forcast by the mid-1990s.  Actual numbers
    have shown this to be erroneous.  As for the Michelangelo
    virus, it's my understanding that Mr. McAfee himself was the
    source of the statement that 5 million machines would be
    infected by that virus in the USA alone . . .

    It cannot be denied, however, that some companies have been
    seriously affected by computer viruses.  On National Computer
    Virus Awareness Day, Federal Communications Week stated that
    Rockwell International and Nydex Corporation came forward to
    tell of their woes of infections in the hundreds.  My
    questions to these companies would be:

        o    Do you back-up your data?
        o    Do you have security or anti-virus software installed
         on your computers?
        o    Are your employees allowed to use software from home
         on their PCs at work?
        o    Is all software installed on your microcomputers
         registered?
        o    Most important, have you instituted a security
         training program for your employees?

    What I am saying is that SLOPPY computer practices will
    sometimes net you a virus.  A computer virus poses a
    negligible threat if the user possesses the fundamentals
    of common sense, ethics, and basic knowledge of computer
    operations.

    I found the next comments by John McAfee in Monroe's piece
    to be self-serving and misleading; as inflammatory as if they
    had been made by some two-bit demagogue:

    "But the greatest concern is the virus writer community
     itself, where the social incentive to write viruses far
     outweighs any legal disincentive . . . Individuals have
     collected into virus writing groups, with names such as
     Nuke, Schism [sic] and Terminator, and have set up
     electronic bulletin boards for disseminating their
     programs. These people can get access to such boards only
     when they have earned the right by successfully infecting
     a network."

    How absurd!  I sign-on to about two dozen virus BBS's across
    the USA, some of which are maintained by virus-writing groups
    while others belong to independent virus researchers.  Not
    once have I been asked to do anything illegal to get full
    access on these boards!  I have also noticed that if anyone
    posts a message advocating illegal activities, the board
    sysop first warns the individual to "cease and desist," then
    terminates that person's access if he/she persists in posting
    such messages.  Individuals who post messages boasting of
    infecting PCs and networks, as Mr. McAfee avers, are considered
    "lame" and undesirable vandals.

    When it comes to disseminating viruses, anti-virus product
    developers are no slouches themselves.  If writing a program
    that replicates is made illegal, then most, if not all, of the
    anti-virus industry should be arrested for distributing viruses
    among themselves and to the public.  They could start
    by arresting John McAfee for sending me over a hundred
    viruses in January of 1991 (I have all correspondence and
    original floppy disks sent by McAfee Associates, if they wish
    me to produce proof.)  And how about the international
    trafficking of viruses?  At the National Computer Security
    Association's Anti-virus Product Developer's conference
    in 1990, I witnessed Alan Solomon of S&S International,
    a British anti-virus company, hand out floppies which
    allegedly contained the latest European viruses to
    the "Good Old Boys Anti-Virus Group," as he and his
    colleagues joked and laughed like children in a candy store.

    Moving on, Mr. McAfee's next comments are only statements of
    the obvious:

    "But under current legislation, such operations are perfectly
     legal."

    Like it or not, writing viruses is protected under our
    first amendment!  I hope the ACLU will test it in court if
    the vendors do succeed in getting some computer illiterate
    Congressman to pass a law.

    "The only crime is to introduce a virus on a system by
     subterfuge."

    Of course, it is and _should_ be a crime.  And yes, how true,
    when someone commits a crime it IS illegal.

    "Imagine if it were legal to steal an automobile."

    What does stealing a car have to do with viruses?  We are
    agreed that car theft and purposely infiltrating a virus
    into a system are both illegal.  As much as I loath analogy
    in debate, since John McAfee has introduced this example
    I shall extend it.  As a car owner, you protect your vehicle
    by installing safeguards to deter the thief.  Similarly,
    you protect your PC from viruses by following a few simple,
    common sense tactics, including the use of an anti-virus
    product.  In fact, those who own or use a microcomputer
    should be following these procedures as a matter of course,
    simply because there are so many other hazards which can
    harm the data stored on a PC.  It seems that instead of an
    intelligent, articulate discussion of the issues, McAfee
    prefers to resort to cheap emotional pleas in order to
    elicit a Pavlovian response from the reader.  I have not seen
    these tactics rivaled since the movie "The Trial of Billy
    Jack"!

    "According to McAfee, society needs to tackle the problem
     with appropriate legislation. 'Until we address it nothing
     we do from a technical stand point is going to have a great
     long-term effect.'"

    So far, virus protection vendors have done a reasonably good
    job of keeping up with the proliferation of viruses, McAfee
    said, but unless legal action is taken, "the anti-virus
    community will be overwhelmed."

    I would like to direct John McAfee's attention to an article
    called "VIRUS MYTHS," written by Mr. Viktor Meyer-Schornberger
    of Ikarus Software, which appeared in the International
    Computer Security Association's March 1992 Virus News and
    Reviews journal.

    The article references European analysts who extrapolated
    over 30,000 new viruses by the mid-1990s.  It then goes on to
    state that the facts do not support such a conclusion.  If
    "minuscule and insignificant variations among viruses are
    disregarded", the number drops to about 750.

    This number included viruses which have never been found in
    the "real" world, are used for research purposes, or are
    extinct. Mr. Meyer-Schornberger estimates that of these 750
    viruses, 10 percent pose a significant risk, 50 percent a very
    slight risk, and the remaining 40 percent, no risk at all "to
    the average computer user".

    The article also refutes the myths of a worldwide virus
    pandemic, virus invisibility (stealth viruses), and an
    impending virus "Armageddon," which seems to be the thrust
    of Mr. McAfee's remarks.

    John McAfee does his best to sound the alarm about the virus
    threat, yet he fails to do his homework.  A study performed
    by the Jinbu Corporation in 1993, on threats to computer
    systems, illustrates my point.  In the Jinbu study,
    losses attributable to computer viruses added roughly to 2
    percent of the whole.  The most notable part of the study
    showed that 50 percent of all losses were, and still are,
    attributed to user error.  Based on John McAfee's
    reasoning, should we not then enact laws against human
    stupidity?

    The last statement in Monroe's article is priceless:

    "McAfee said he believes that laws will get through only
     when the problem is so severe that someone in a sensitive
     government agency, such as the Justice Department, has a
     virus problem of near-catastrophic proportions . . . 'At that
     point, I think we will see some legislation,' he said."

    After such irresponsible statements by John McAfee, the
    Justice Department should discontinue its site license for
    his anti-virus software, which Justice has had for the past
    several years!  Is McAfee hoping and praying for a catastrophe
    to happen to the Justice Department?  Has he no faith in
    his own product's ability to stop viruses?  The scope of any
    law passed as a knee-jerk reaction to the viral destruction
    of data at any major institution would be suspect, and
    comparable to the edict which unjustly interned
    Japanese-Americans at the outset of World War II.

    Whether or not the federal government advertises virus
    infections will not materially affect the number of virus
    incidents one way or another.  In fact, the federal government
    is heading towards as compliance with whjat is known as a
    C2 level of security.  C2 in and of itself resolves the virus
    problem!  ALL VIRUSES ARE HARMLESS IN A FULLY IMPLEMENTED C2
    ENVIRONMENT!  A C2 operating system will not release security
    controls to any software program.  System resources such as
    memory are released back to the operating system upon
    logging off of any user on the system or network.  A user
    introducing unauthorized software - or viruses - into the
    system should not even be able to execute the software, let
    alone write to the file server, without going through the
    system administrator.  The bottom line is: The demand
    for anti-virus products will wane as systems become
    C2 compliant!

    I find it repugnant that vendors want to control the
    public's behavior and freedoms when they cannot agree to a
    code of ethics among themselves.

    Education and moral behavior, not legislation, are the
    answer to eradicating viruses.  The anti-virus vendors
    should stick to research and development, programming and
    product enhancement - that's their field of expertise.

    They should stay out of the legislative arena and leave
    our Constitution alone.

    I value my freedoms highly; I hope others value theirs
    equally.

    --James F. Lipshultz, Esquire

    Special thanks to Frank Tirado for assistance in preparation
    of this article.
    *********************
    [James F. Lipshultz has served on the editorial
    staff of the computer security magazine, Virus News and
    Reviews.]
    -----------------------------------------------------------

    TECHNICAL STUFF IN THIS ISSUE:

    Crypt Newsletter 20 kicks off with editor KohnTark's K-CMOS
    virus, a program designed to show you how viruses can
    manipulate the data in CMOS RAM.

    There are few examples of such viruses; the EXEbug is
    probably the most widely recognized, a boot sector infecting
    program which uses CMOS data manipulation to make its
    removal from an infected hard disk a task for the trivial
    user.

    While most anti-virus programs have tools which save and restore
    CMOS data, few protect it from change.  Viruses, or
    any software, can manipulate this data with impunity.
    Because K-CMOS unhooks your mounted hard disks in the CMOS,
    it is imperative you read the accompanying documentation
    CAREFULLY and THOROUGHLY before trying out the program.  If
    you haven't done already done so, now would be a good time to
    familiarize with the CMOS BIOS setup program which can be
    called by hitting the <Del> key on computer power up.  Bring
    up this set up and take a look at the values stored in the CMOS,
    page through the menus - maybe even write down your setup
    so in case something ever does derange it by accident,
    you have at least a vague idea of where to start.  Only
    after you feel comfortable changing this data from
    the setup screens should you begin to experiment with
    K-CMOS.  It's an interesting learning tool, but it isn't
    for the dilettante.

    Also included are the FIREFLY viruses, aggressively anti-
    anti-virus viruses which glue together features from the
    LokJaw, YB-X and Proto-T viruses.  Firefly, by Nikademus,
    also ties a visual marker to the timer tick interrupt,
    causing a slow cycle through the keyboard NumLock,
    CapsLock and ScrollLock light emitting diodes.  The effect
    is a twinkling on your keyboard when the virus is in
    memory and infecting files, making Firefly easy to find
    and rather inconceivable that it would escape on a system.

    Firefly is encrypted and also incorporates the anti-heuristic
    code demonstrated in Crypt Newsletter 18.  Firefly
    will behave badly if a number of anti-virus programs are
    executed when it is in memory by deleting them on load.
    This comprises a minor "expert system" in the virus, in
    effect giving it some comprehensive recognition of common
    anti-virus software and how to deal with it if used in
    a trivial manner.  The net effect for a user is either to
    learn to scan for viruses from write-protected diskette,
    ensure that the machine is always booted clean and is thus
    free virus control, or to rename all anti-virus software
    from default installations.

    [Thanks to Nikademus for the Firefly contribution to
    this issue.]

    Remember, even outside of CMOS data corruption, the included
    viruses can append themselves to your executable files,
    perhaps beyond your ability to remove them.  Back up your
    data first and don't work with them if you have no idea
    what you're doing (unless you enjoy annoying mishaps
    on your PC).

    Also included in this issue are Black Wolf's Picture
    Encoding Utilities, a set of public domain programs
    designed to let you embed messages, data or code in a picture
    file of limited format.  The utility of Picture Encode is for
    that situation on the network where uuencoded or encrypted
    data raises a stink, but does not alleviate the need for
    some measure of privacy or secure transmission.  Picture
    Encode allows you to try your hand at embedding data
    of any nature in an innocuous picture file of your choice.

    The accompanying documentation in README explains how to
    use Picture Encode.  Picture Encode's source code is
    included so that you may inspect the programs at your
    convenience.

    The newsletter thanks Black Wolf for Picture Encode.


    ------------------------------------------------------------

    FINDING/OBTAINING/LOVING THE CRYPT NEWSLETTER:

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    ----A complete set of 20 back issues of The Crypt Newsletter
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    Remember to include a good mailing address with any
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    --------------------------------------------------------------

                  *CAVEAT EMPTOR*

    What is the Crypt Newsletter?  The Crypt Newsletter is an
    electronic document which delivers deft satire, savage
    criticism, feature news, media analyses, book reviews
    and more on topics of interest to the editor and the
    computing public.  The Crypt Newsletter also reviews anti-virus
    and security software and republishes digested news of note to
    users of such.  The Crypt Newsletter ALSO supplies analysis
    and complete source code to many computer viruses made expressly
    for the newsletter. Source codes and DEBUG scripts of these
    viruses can corrupt - quickly and irreversibly -
    the data on an IBM-compatible microcomputer - particularly when
    handled imperfectly. Ownership of The Crypt Newsletter can damage
    your reputation, making you unpopular in heavily institutionalized
    settings, rigid bureaucracy or environments where unsophisticated,
    self-important computer user groups cohabit.

    Files included in this issue:

          CRPTLT.R20 - this electronic document
          K-CMOS.ASM - source code to K-CMOS virus
          K-CMOS.SCR - DEBUG scriptfile for K-CMOS sample
          FIREFLY.TXT - source code to FIREFLY virus
          FIREFLY.SCR - scriptfile for FIREFLY sample
          README      - READ ME file for Black Wolf's picture
                encode utilities
          ENCODE.*    - source code and executable to Black
                Wolf's Picture Encoding Utilities
          DECODE.*    - source code and executable to Black
                Wolf's PictEnc
          PUTSCR.*    - source code and executable to PictEnc
                utilities
          MESSAGES.*  - illustrative examples of PictEnc
          NEWMESS.DAT - illustrative examples of PictEnc


     To assemble programs in the newsletter directly from scriptfiles,
     copy the MS-DOS program DEBUG.EXE to your work directory and
     type:

        DEBUG <*.scr

     where *.scr is the scriptfile of interest included in this issue.
    -------------------------------------------------------------------


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    *********************************************************************
    Editorial content within the Crypt Newsletter is (c)opyrighted by
    Urnst Kouch and Crypt InfoSystems News Services, Inc. 1993, unless
    otherwise noted. Republishing it without prior consent is graceless
    and corrupt.  Ask first.
    *********************************************************************