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CPI2_10.TXT
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INI File
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1994-07-17
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17KB
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340 lines
[2.10]
Virili In The News
------------------
This section deals with a large amount of stuff, basically, a bunch
of viruses and stuff that have been in the newspapers and magazines cuz
all of the damage they have done. Enjoy....
There's A Virus In My Software
Mischief-makers at the computer
are deliberately endangering data
By Philip J. Hilts
Washington Post Staff Writer
The Washington Post Weekly Edition, Page #38. May 23-29, 1988.
Tiny programs that are deliberately cause mischief are epidemic among
computers and causing nervousness among those who monitor them. Since the
first tests of the notion in 1983 that machines can catch and spread
"information diseases," the computer world has reached the point at which as
many as thirty instances of "computer virus" have been reported in the past
year, affecting tens of thousands of U.S. computers alone.
Such viruses have been found at the National Aeronautics and Space
Administration, International Business Machines Corporation, the House of
Representatives, at least six universities, several major computer networks
such as Comp-u-serve and several businesses, including the world's largest
computer-service company, the $4.4 billion Electronic Data Systems
Corporation of Dallas, Texas.
Written by malicious programmers, the viruses are sneaked into computer
systems by piggybacking them on legitimate programs and messages. There,
they may be passed along or instructed to wait until a prearranged moment to
burst forth and destroy data.
Hundreds of computers at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and other
places in Israel were hit last fall by a virus designed to spread and then,
in one swipe on a Friday the thirteenth, destroy all data in any computer it
could reach.
If not for an error by it's author, who has not been caught, the virus
could have caused devastation among micro-computers in Israel and other
nations. The virus did not check to see whether it already had infected a
program and so infected some computers hundreds of times, crowding their
memories enough to call attention to itself.
In a seven-month campaign, programmers in Israel hastened to find
infected machines and ensure that the smallest number would be affected
before Friday, May 13th. Officials say they initially thought that the
infection was connected with the anniversary of the last day that Palestine
existed as a political entity but subsequently decided that it most likely
involved just Friday the thirteenth.
Apparently, the campaign was successful; there has been no word of
substantial damage. This past Friday the thirteenth is this year's only such
day.
At the Aldus Corporation of Seattle, Washington, a major software maker,
executives are huddling with lawyers to try to determine whether
international spread of such diseases is illegal. No virus cases have been
taken to court.
At N.A.S.A. headquarters in Washington, several hundred computers had to
be resuscitated after being infected. N.A.S.A. officials have taken
precautions and reminded their machines' users to follow routine computer
hygiene: Don't trust foreign data or strange machines.
Viruses have the eerie ability to perch disguised among legitimate data
just as biological viruses hide among genes in human cells, then spring out
unexpectedly, multiplying and causing damage. Experts say that even when
they try to study viruses in controlled conditions, the programs can get out
of control and erase everything in a computer. The viruses can be virtually
impossible to stop if their creators are determined enough.
"The only way to protect every-body from them is to do something much
worse than the viruses: Stop talking to one another with computers," says
William H. Murray, an information-security specialist at Ernst and Whinney
financial consultants in Hartford, Connecticut.
Hundreds of programs and files have been destroyed by viruses, and
thousands of hours of repair or prevention time have been logged.
Programmers have quickly produced antidote programs with such titles as
"Vaccine," "Flu Shot," "Data Physician," "Syringe."
Experts says known damage is minimal compared with the huge, destructive
potential. They express the hope that the attacks will persuade computer
users to minimize access to programming and data.
"What we are dealing with here is the fabric of trust in society," says
Murray. "With computer viruses, we have a big vulnerability."
Early this year, Aldus Corporation discovered that a virus had been
introduced that infected at least five-thousand copies of a new drawing
program called Freehand for the Macintosh computer. The infected copies were
packaged, sent to stores and sold. On March 2, the virus interrupted users
by flashing this message on their screens:
"Richard Brandow, publisher of MacMag, and its entire staff would like
to take this opportunity to convey their universal message of peace to all
Macintosh users around the world."
Viruses are the newest of evolving methods of computer mayhem, says
Donn B. Parker, a consultant at SRI International, a computer research firm
in Menlo Park, California. One is the "Trojan horse," a program that looks
and acts like a normal program but contains hidden commands that eventually
take effect, ordering mischief. Others include the "time bomb," which
explodes at a set time, and the "logic bomb," which goes off when the
computer arrives at a certain result during normal computation. The "salami
attack" executes barely noticeable results small acts, such as shaving a
penny from thousands of accounts.
The computer virus has the capability to command the computer to make
copies of the virus and spread them. A virus typically is written only as a
few hundred characters in a program containing tens of thousands of
characters. When the computer reads legitimate instructions, it encounters
the virus, which instructs the computer to suspend normal operations for a
fraction of a second.
During that time, the virus instructs the computer to check for other
copies of itself and, if none is found, to make and hide copies. Instruction
to commit damage may be included. A few infamous viruses found in the past
year include:
[] The "scores" virus. Named after a file it spawns, it recently entered
several hundred Macintosh computers at N.A.S.A. headquarters. "It looks
as if it searching for a particular Macintosh program with a name that
no one recognizes," spokesman Charles Redmond says.
This virus, still spreading, has reached computers in Congress'
information system at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration and at Apple Computer Incorporated's government-systems
office in Reston, Virginia. It has hit individuals, businesses and
computer "bulletin boards" where computer hobbyists share information.
It apparently originated in Dallas, Texas and has caused damage, but
seemingly only because of its clumsiness, not an instruction to do
damage.
[] The "brain" virus. Named by its authors, it was written by two brothers
in a computer store in Lahore, Pakistan, who put their names, addresses
and phone number in the virus. Like "scores," it has caused damage
inadvertently, ordering the computer to copy itself into space that
already contain information.
[] The "Christmas" virus. It struck last December after a West German
student sent friends a Christmas message through a local computer
network. The virus told the receiver's computer to display the
greeting, then secretly send the virus and message to everyone on the
recipient's regular electronic mailing list.
The student apparently had no idea that some