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- Computer underground Digest Sun Oct 22, 1995 Volume 7 : Issue 82
- ISSN 1004-042X
-
- Editors: Jim Thomas and Gordon Meyer (TK0JUT2@MVS.CSO.NIU.EDU
- Archivist: Brendan Kehoe
- Shadow Master: Stanton McCandlish
- Field Agent Extraordinaire: David Smith
- Shadow-Archivists: Dan Carosone / Paul Southworth
- Ralph Sims / Jyrki Kuoppala
- Ian Dickinson
- Cu Digest Homepage: http://www.soci.niu.edu/~cudigest
-
- CONTENTS, #7.82 (Sun, Oct 22, 1995)
-
- File 1--Do Not Visit This Address or Call This Phone Number
- File 2--Attention Spammers: The War Has Started
- File 3--(fwd) PSU Student Challenges "Asatru" Email address (fwd)
- File 4--Giant Black Book of Computer Viruses
- File 5--Cu Digest Header Info (unchanged since 18 Oct, 1995)
-
- CuD ADMINISTRATIVE, EDITORIAL, AND SUBSCRIPTION INFORMATION APPEARS IN
- THE CONCLUDING FILE AT THE END OF EACH ISSUE.
-
- ---------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- Date: Fri, 20 Oct 1995 00:00:37 -0500
- From: TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson) <telecom@DELTA.EECS.NWU.EDU>
- Subject: File 1--Do Not Visit This Address or Call This Phone Number
-
- ((MODERATORS' NOTE: Pat Townson, editor of TELECOM Digest, and the one
- responsible for the birth of CuD in March, 1990, wins "Net-warrior of
- the week" award for his marvelous job of outing the "Spam King")).
-
-
- A nemesis of many on the Internet in recent weeks is a fellow known as
- Spam King. He has trashed hundreds of newsgroups with his messages, and
- this includes comp.dcom.telecom recently. I spent some time Thursday
- locating him.
-
- Spam King is Jeffrey A. Slaton of Albuquerque, NM as he admitted to me in
- a phone conversation this evening.
-
- Here is what I know for a fact:
-
- According to the phone company in Albuquerque, NM, the phone number
-
- 505-821-1945 is listed to 'J.A. Slaton'
- address withheld at the customer's request.
-
- When you dial that number which *always* goes to voice mail, try this
- little technique ...
-
- The instant it answers, press the * key. The voicemail
- system will respond saying,
-
- "We are having a problem right now, please do not hang up.
- To leave a message, enter the number of the person you are
- calling. To listen to your messages, press the # key."
-
- When you press the # key, another voice asks you to enter your
- telephone number (meaning of course, Jeff's phone number) ...
- so you enter once again 505-821-1945. Of course, since you are
- not Jeff, don't do this.
-
- You immediatly hear the name of the mailbox owner stated:
-
- "Jeff Slaton" (pronounced Slay - ton)
-
- And you are then asked to enter your (meaning his) password
- to pick up your messages. grin ....
-
- I really have to wonder who he thinks he is messing around
- with ....
-
- Now would someone be so stupid as to use SPAM KING as thier
- password? (using the associated digits on the dial). Well
- no, he did not use that, but I am not going to say what
- password he *is* using. That might be illegal and might be
- construed as me encouraging others to loot and destroy his messages.
-
- I'll let others of you figure it out, since after
- all it is against the law to hack someone's voicemail.
-
- This appears to be just your typical phone company voicemail
- system. It is NOT a 'D.I.D.' (direct inward dial) number to
- a voicemail system ... it *is* a number in his home that is
- just always left to go to voicemail.
-
- ================================
-
- Speaking of homes, were *does* Jeffrey A. Slaton live? Well, I located
- him as follows:
-
- Jeff A. Slaton
- 6808 Truchas Drive NE
- Albuquerque, NM 87109
-
- The phone number he actually answers on is 505-822-8919. He gets a
- woman who lives there to answer the phone; he hides behind her skirt.
- I got him to come to the phone and speak to me with some persistence.
-
- Naturally when dialing, if one wishes to preserve one's privacy one
- will prepend *67 to the dialing string, or do as the phreaks did years
- ago before the new-fangled phone system was invented and just run
- through a few loop-arounds or a couple of MCI dialups or whatever.
-
- Of course, readers are reminded that phone harassment is illegal and
- ransacking and looting of other people's voicemail is also quite
- illegal. Nor is it recommended that visitors without appointments
- drop in to see him at his home or try anything violent like smashing
- or busting up computers, modems, etc. That sort of thing just will
- never, never do ... not in a civilized America or on a civilized net.
- I mean, we are still pretending that we have a modicum of civility
- here, right?
-
- I don't want to hear any reports back about people trashing that
- telephone number (505-822-8919) so badly that the phone company is
- never able to re-assign it to anyone or about how someone went out
- there to 6808 Truchas Drive NE and busted up little Jeffy's toy computer.
-
- When he spammed my newsgroup, and rode express right through my
- mailing list a couple days ago, he got me ... well, let's say
- 'annoyed'.
-
-
- PAT
- TD Editor
-
- PS: You might want to let others know about this fellow so that when
- they are confronted with messages from Spam King they'll know who to
- see about it. Of course, in the process of posting this around, do
- not start spamming yourself. <grin> ... none the less, when you see
- some of Spam King's work, let Jeff know how you feel about it, and
- be sure to mention the newsgroup(s) where you saw his stuff. He'll
- appreciate that.
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Sun, 22 Oct 1995 03:23:08 -0500
- From: TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson) <telecom@DELTA.EECS.NWU.EDU>
- Subject: File 2--Attention Spammers: The War Has Started
-
- I don't know about the rest of you, but all this spamming in recent months
- has really started to get me irritated. I think one solution worth looking
- into is that of *spamming back at the spammers*.
-
- Since *they* do not seem to care what sort of irrelevant junk they sent
- out to every newsgroup and mailing list they can find, I see no reason
- why netters can't simply return the courtesy, armed with such details
- as:
-
- home address,
- home phone number,
- social security number of the spammer when known,
- banking information of the spammer when known,
- other personal details, etc.
-
- Then, I'll leave it to your imaginations as to how to best deal with
- the inconsiderate boobs who have trashed the net to the point of it being
- almost useless in recent months.
-
- Listen to them squeal like stuck pigs when the place *they* get *thier*
- messages and mail gets loaded with spam ... listen and watch how they
- carry on when their telephone number becomes so polluted they have to
- have it changed time and time again ... smile ... oh, there are people
- who can make those things happen. You can even be taught how if you
- don't already know the techniques used.
-
- And imagine the fun to be had by all with Jeff 'Spam King' Slaton's
- social security number and banking information ... <even bigger grin> ...
- Jeff sees nothing wrong with invading *your* privacy does he? You are
- gonna worry about his?
-
- Here is the data on Jeff once again in case you missed it, and then we
- will move on to a new assignment:
-
- Jeff A. Slaton
- 6808 Truchas Drive NE
- Albuquerque, NM 87109
- Phone: (505)822.8919 personal answer, but lately on an answering
- machine. press '2' for Jeff, do not bother
- the rest of the family.
-
- Voicemail: (505)821.1945 once it answers, press * and listen to
- the voicemail system's response. Enter the
- proper numbers, etc as required.
-
- I'm doing a social security number trace on him now, and trying to
- find out where he banks. I'm not certain, but I think he has some
- other employment as well. If so, spam will be needed there also.
- Details provided when available. In the meantime, let's get busy with
- letters and phone calls to Jeff, letting him know how concerned we are
- about his attitude. When you write or call Jeff, be sure to let him
- know the newsgroup and site where you saw *his* spam. He'll appreciate
- knowing you are concerned about him as a net citizen.
-
- --------------------------------
-
- Now let us direct our attention to the magazine club ... you know, the
- one all the 'international students' are raving about ... the one that
- Janet Dove introduced us to and Patricia Eng (president of the
- international students association) has been reminding us about with
- 30,000 byte, thousand line messages recently posted in dozens of
- newsgroups. Here is a header from a recent spam sent to me for my
- list -- thank God I still maintain telecom manually, else this crap
- would have gone out.
-
-
- This first part merely says that it arrived at our site, was delivered
- to my mail filter, processed through the filter according to my
- instructions, then remailed to me !absolutely!, bypassing the filter.
- Can't just drop things in the mail spool after filtering them, it may
- cause race conditions, file overwriting, etc.
-
- From telecom Sat Oct 21 17:50:45 1995
- Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (8.6.12/8.6.12) id RAA24689 for
- \telecom; Sat,
- 21 Oct 1995 17:50:44 -0500
- Date--Sat, 21 Oct 1995 17:50:44 -0500
- From--TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson) <telecom@delta.eecs.nwu.edu>
- Message-Id: <199510212250.RAA24689@delta.eecs.nwu.edu>
- To: \telecom@delta.eecs.nwu.edu
- Status: R
-
- Now, here is where the fun starts. Notice how the sender of the mail
- used certain flags in sendmail to diddle up the 'From ' and 'From:'
- lines, thinking they could avoid detection.
-
- Essentially what we see is, my site (delta) got it from our network
- mail machine (zeta) which got it from cornell. Cornell got it from
- ixc.net who in turn got it from 205.230.67.30. Hmmm ... well that
- turns out to be something called ppp30.ingress.com. Now maybe it
- came from there or maybe the person just put that there.
-
- >From
- For.a.prompter.reply.please.fax@If.you.do.not.have.a.fax.smail.is.ok Sat
- Oct 21 17:50:41 1995
- Received: from zeta.eecs.nwu.edu by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (8.6.12/8.6.12)
- with
- ESMTP id RAA24676 for <telecom@delta.eecs.nwu.edu>; Sat, 21 Oct 1995 17:50:38
- -0500
- Received: from cornell.edu by zeta.eecs.nwu.edu (8.6.12/8.6.12) with
- ESMTP id
- RAA09521; Sat, 21 Oct 1995 17:50:36 -0500
- Received: from [205.230.67.30] (pm1-41.ixc.net [198.70.48.41]) by
- cornell.edu
- (8.6.12/8.6.12) with SMTP id QAA01200; Sat, 21 Oct 1995 16:12:29 -0400
-
- Note that when you trick the mail network by using certain sendmail 'flags'
- which allow you to diddle up your 'name' into something goofy like
- this, if you are not considered a 'trusted user' at your site -- that
- is, your name is in a certain file -- then the (unverified) comment
- will appear; sometimes it will be shown as 'authentication warning'.
-
- X-Sender:
- For.a.prompter.reply.please.fax@If.you.do.not.have.a.fax.smail.is.ok
- (Unverified)
-
- Let's assume for now the message ID number was generated by the site.
- Let's also assume that the person who dumped this load on the net
- is NOT the postmaster there. I know, even that is a big assumption
- these days; but let's assume the postmaster is straight ...
-
- Message-Id: <v01530526acaf0267262c@[205.230.67.30]>
-
- We now need to send a note to 'postmaster@ppp30.ingress.com' and ask
- that person if s/he will be so kind as to check the site logs and
- see if it can be detirmined WHO is the actual user who accessed
- sendmail at 16:48 on Saturday, October 21 to send mail with the
- Message-ID shown above. You might want to cc 'postmaster@ixc.net'
- at the same time. Sendmail should have logs of who accesses it,
- regardless of what that person makes sendmail say to the outside world
- later on.
-
- X-Priority: 1 (Highest)
-
- Yeah, right. The highest priority my dear. You *will* be given close
- attention in the next few days, believe me you ...
-
- Date--Sat, 21 Oct 1995 16:48:12 -0500
-
- Note although ppp30.ingress sent it out at 16:48, Cornell says they
- got it at 16:12. That's because Cornell is on a different time zone
- than ingress apparently. In effect, they got it 24 minutes after it
- was sent out.
-
- Now notice TO WHOM it was written and FROM WHOM it was sent ...
-
- To: For.a.prompter.reply.please.fax@If.you.do.not.have.a.fax.smail.is.ok
- (Patricia Eng, President, Association of International Students, Australia-New
- Zealand Chapter)
-
- From--For.a.prompter.reply.please.fax@If.you.do.not.have.a.fax.smail.is.ok
- (Patricia
- Eng, President, Association of International Students, Australia-New
- Zealand Chapter)
-
- Bogus From and Bogus (identical) To -- so with a 'To' line like the
- above, how did I get a copy over here, and how did you get one (if you
- did)?
-
- Well this tells us there must have been one or more bcc's ... 'blind
- courtesy copy' or do you say 'carbon copy' like me, the old fart that
- I am going back to carbon paper and typewriter days?
-
- Anyway, there is a bcc involved. It is a great way to send out mail to
- a huge list of people (or LISTS of people) without any of them knowing
- who the others are. I do it all the time with my mailing list to keep
- the names on the list from seeing the other names: I send it from
- myself to myself with a bcc that has a few thousand names!
-
-
- Subject--*** ===>> World's *Cheapest* Way to get USA Magazine
- Subscriptions
- delivered to
- *any* country (1,500+ USA titles to choose from).
-
- Mercifully, we shall skip most of this tripe; we all know what Janet
- Dove and now Patricia Eng have done: recently they joined a magazine
- subscription club in the USA.
-
- Janet Dove told us that she was 'a busy student' and would have no
- time for replies, so please do not write to her.
-
- Well, unfortunatly for her, a lot of you did write. Flames and more
- flames. Obscene letters, hate letters, you name it. Janet got the
- good trashing she deserved. It got so bad the magazine people had
- to change their address, phone and fax number.
-
- ---> PLEASE NOTE THE NEW FAX # AND NEW SMAIL ADDRESS, AS SHOWN BELOW.
- TO
- RETURN THE "REQUEST FOR MORE INFO" FORM TO. THE OLD ADDRESS AND FAX #
- ARE
- NO LONGER FUNCTIONAL. <---
-
- You will get a quick reply via email within 1 business day of receipt of
- the info request form below.
-
-
- This time, they got smart ... but they're not as smart as you, are
- they folks? Grin ... they say, 'our fax machine is set up to only
- accept one page, and then disconnect.'
-
- Gee, I wonder why? Is it because so many of you folks last time
- around set your fax up with a mobious loop of paper which went round
- and round all night causing Janet's machine to waste all its paper?
- They say, "gotcha! it won't work this time, internet dudes ... this
- time we take one sheet of paper only from you ... and we cut you off!"
-
- ----> IMPORTANT NOTICE FOR THOSE FAXING IN THEIR REPLY:
- (*please* make sure there is *no* cover page and your fax is only
- 1-page, as
- their fax is set-up to receive only 1-page faxes. Your fax goes
- directly onto
- their 4.2 gigabyte computer hard drive, not paper, and all incoming fax
- calls are set-up to
- be auto-terminated at the start of the 2nd page, in order to allow space
- for
- everyone's replies to be received.. <----
-
- *** No, what they mean is, 'in order for your hostile reply to not
- clog our machine and run us out of paper every few minutes all night
- long ... *** <grin>
-
- So a new approach will be needed. Read on .....
-
- Hi fellow 'netters,
-
- My name is Patricia Eng and I recently started using a magazine
- subscription club in the USA that has a FREE 1 yr. magazine subscription
- deal with your first paid order- and I have been very pleased with them.
- They have over 1,500 different USA titles that they can ship to any
- country
- on a subscription basis. As for computer magazines from the USA, they
- more of a selection than I ever knew even existed. They have magazines
- for
- most every area of interest in their list of 1,500 titles.
-
-
- (Several hundred lines deleted; I am sure you are angry with me for
- cutting them out ... grin ...)
-
- And guess what! Patsy Eng is the same way as Janet Dove ... 'just a
- happy customer and a busy student' ... no time to answer flames ...
- and to make sure she does not have to answer flames, she thoughtfully
- screwed up her email address, as we saw above.
-
- Please do not email me as I am just a happy customer and a *busy*
- student.
- I don't have time to even complete my thesis in time, let alone run my
- part-time software business! Please fill out the below form and
-
- fax it to them in the USA at: 718-967-1550
-
- (Fax line is open 24 hrs. per day, 7 days a week, but the *easiest* time
- to get your fax through is Mon-Fri, 9 am - 5 pm EST, due to the least #
- of
- faxes coming through during those hours.).
-
-
- We will discuss that phone number in just a minute.
-
- ----> IMPORTANT NOTICE FOR THOSE FAXING IN THEIR REPLY:
- (*please* make sure there is *no* cover page and your fax is only
- 1-page, as
- their fax is set-up to receive only 1-page faxes. Your fax goes
- directly onto
- their 4.2 gigabyte computer hard drive, not paper, and all incoming fax
- calls are set-up to
- be auto-terminated at the start of the 2nd page, in order to allow space
- for
- everyone's replies to be received.. <----
-
-
- She stresses this again; you see last time the magazine people
- unloaded their commode here on the net, many of you responded
- vigorously, you damn near wrecked their fax machine ... good!
-
- And they would like you to fax to them during the business day ... not
- so much because that is 'when it is slowest and easiest to get through'
- but more because that's the time of day when they are there to
- monitor what is happening ... naturally, you will want to send
- your faxes at night and on weekends .... grin ....
-
- or smail it to them at the following address:
- Magazine Club Inquiry Center
- Att. FREE Catalogue-by-email
- Dept.
- PO Box 990
- Staten Island NY 10312-0990
-
- We will discuss this post office box in a minute also.
-
-
- NOTE: for the fastest reply, please fax in the below form. If you do
- not
- have access to a fax at work or at home, then please send it in by smail
- (airmail). They will email you their FREE catalogue and complete info
- on
- how their club works within 1 business day of receiving your form.
- Replying does not mean you are committed to joining, only that you
- are seriously interested in receiving more info by email and then have a
- quick friendly, no obligation phone call made to you to answer your
- questions and explain how they work.
-
- Only a complete FOOL would supply them with any information at all about
- themselves or their email address or snail mail address, etc.
-
-
- Sorry, but incomplete forms *will not* be acknowledged. If you do not
- have an email address, or access to one, they will not be able to help
- you
- until you do have one. If you saw this message, then you should have
- one. :)
-
-
- *** Snicker ****
-
- (About a thousand more lines deleted ... I do not intend to
- advertise their magazines for them.)
-
-
- Now here is where YOU come in ... here are some things YOU can do to
- help expose the vermin who, like Slaton, have managed to damn near
- wreck Usenet ...
-
- I. Write postmaster@ppp30.ingress.com (with a copy to)
- postmaster@pm1-41.ixc.net
-
- Text: "Please check your log of outgoing mail for 16:12 on October 21
- and see if it is possible to detirmine which user sent the mail with
- the above referenced message-ID and give me that name. Thank you."
-
- Once the postmaster responds, see to it the rest of the net gets the
- correct user name. Finger the user if possible for more details as
- to real name, etc. Naturally, most vermin do not have .plan files in
- thier directory, but put together what data you can.
-
-
- II. That phone number: 718-967-1550. It is a working number in Staten
- Island, NY but it is non-pub. A fax machine is answering. I am running
- into dead ends at present finding out any more. I'll keep working on
- it, but in the meantime, if you have a fax that is a hundred pages
- long, you may need to call them a hundred times and send your fax
- page by page. Are there some pictures you want them to see, or a
- magazine article? Maybe they should get copies of other spams like
- their own ... but long distance is cheap these days (nights) ... so
- if you have to send several to get it all delivered, then do it.
- People in the local NY/NJ area may have a lot of faxing they need
- to do. <grin>
-
-
- III. That box number: PO Box 990, Staten Island, NY 10312
-
- Send a short polite letter addressed as follows:
-
- Postmaster
- Staten Island, NY 10312
-
- ATTN: Lock Box Rental Supervisor
-
- Text:
-
- "Post Office Box 990 is being used for business purposes, to solicit
- the public. Therefore, according to postal regulations, I am entitled
- to know the name and address of the box holder.
-
- "Please supply me with the name and address of the renter of Box 990,
- also a phone number if you have one. Please supply me with the name(s)
- of the person(s) authorized to sign for certified/registered mail and
- the name(s) of persons authorized to collect mail from the box or who
- are in possession of the keys to the box if they are different than
- the renter.
-
- "I am enclosing a self addressed stamped envelope for your convenience
- in making a speedy reply. If there is a fee for your service, please
- advise me. Thank you."
-
- If you want, just for a little fun, send a cc of the letter
- to the postmaster to the box itself <grin> just to let the
- boxholder know inquiries are being made about him. Nothing
- better than a little paranoia on his part. Naturally you do
- not send him a self addressed stamped envelope. Since he *is*
- running a business box, he will be powerless to stop you from
- inquiring of the postmaster.
-
- IV. Finally, once again in reference to Box 990, you may wish to
- send him LOTS of mail ... why not send printouts of his own spams
- back to him along with print outs of every other spam you can find.
- Naturally, no return address on the envelope, and don't worry if
- you short the postage a little .. the post office will tell him to
- pick up his mail at the call counter and pay the postage due.
- Send a few 'Jesus Saves' tracts, assorted treatises, etc. You are
- doing this to follow up on the fax message you sent earlier -- all
- five hundred pages of it!
-
- ---------------------------
-
- Be courteous and polite with postmasters, electronic or otherwise. It
- is not thier fault that they have idiots and con-artists as customers.
- Whether it is ingress.com, or the postmaster at Staten Island, they
- WILL get the point and understand the purpose of your POLITE inquiry.
-
- -----------------------
-
- So ... now please finish your assignment with Jeff, and then begin
- this new assignment with the magazine people. Bear in mind the junk
- mail spam sent to the magazine people is only until we have more
- detailed information about who they are and where they are.
-
- Good luck on your mission! Keep their mailbox full and their fax
- machine humming ... each time a new spam appears, in addition to
- cancelling it as soon as possible mitigating its influence, let's
- hit them hard in return with as much personal data as we can dig
- up. Should there possibly be a Digest or mailing list devoted to
- a 'clearing house' function, identifying the vermin and coordinating
- return attacks, etc?
-
- War has been declared!
-
-
- PAT
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Sat, 14 Oct 1995 22:46:26 -0500 (CDT)
- From: David Smith <bladex@BGA.COM>
- Subject: File 3--(fwd) PSU Student Challenges "Asatru" Email address (fwd)
-
- ---------- Forwarded message ----------
- From--an189240@anon.penet.fi
- Date--Thu, 12 Oct 1995 21:17:23 UTC
-
-
- News:
- Portland, Oregon U.S.***
-
- A student has brought a legal challenge in U.S. District Court here
- for being required in a public school to associate with or use their
- computer Email address containing a religious name from the Asatru
- religion. The school, Portland State University, has named two
- mainframe computer machines after "Odin" and "Loki", which are figures
- of worship in the Asatru religion. The Oregon State Board of Higher
- Education (OSBHE) denied his in-school complaint, saying the names are
- generally regarded as mere "myth" and not religion. A letter by
- OSBHE's chancellor, Joseph W. Cox, also denies the student's religious
- basis for his objection, stating by letter that his personal
- "Hebrew-Christian" beliefs do not "rise to this level" "of an official
- religion". No harm, no "worship", is involved from mere reading or
- typing in the names, he says.
-
- The student, however, claims that "the university overextended its
- "Viking" mascot theme into the religious sphere". The names are
- associated with a current pagan religion that has many adherents-
- Asatru or Odinism. It has been in existence since 1971 in both Iceland
- and the U.S. The university is supporting an establishment of this
- religion, he claims. It denied his own Hebrew-Christian religion and
- by any required association with this other pagan religion, it has
- also "substantially burdened" his own exercise of religion- in the
- language of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993.
-
- The student is also mindful of having to use certain Unix or Pine
- system commands which are repugnant to his moral or religious beliefs.
- Because his Hebrew-Christian beliefs are to affirm all Life, he
- objects to having to use the "k-i-l-l" and "u-n-k-i-l-l" language of
- computer commands. In repeated use, it is a subtle form of reinforcing
- or conditioning immorality. Reinforcing a "culture of death"- as Pope
- John Paul also put it in his recent visit to the U.S.
-
- The case, Hieb v. OSBHE, presents an interesting turnabout: the Asatru
- religion may be seen as arising as part of a youth protest movement
- against the dominant, state-established Lutheran church in northern
- Europe. In Oregon at PSU, the Asatru religion is claimed to be the
- state supported religion. The student's Hebrew-Christian religion is a
- "back to the Roots" variation of the dominant Christian religion.
- Which he says has been very "Greco-Romanized", even "imperialized",
- from the original. So far, he filed the action "pro se" and has no
- attorney.
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Wed, 18 Oct 95 16:56 EST
- From: "AMERICAN EAGLE PUBLICATION INC." <0005847161@MCIMAIL.COM>
- Subject: File 4--Giant Black Book of Computer Viruses
-
- For Immediate Release
-
- Perhaps you've heard of The Little Black Book of Computer Viruses. It
- was released in 1991 and caused quite a stir in the computing
- community because it detailed the operation of four computer viruses,
- and included full source code for them in the book so that readers
- could put the viruses together and experiment with them.
-
- It has become one of the most highly censored technical books of the
- decade, banned by numerous computer magazines, and even the likes of
- Soldier of Fortune. It has been the subject of litigation in France
- which went clear to the Supreme Court, resulting in an important
- precedent for freedom of speech in that country.
-
- Mark Ludwig, author of The Little Black Book, has just come back with
- The Giant Black Book of Computer Viruses, and it's sure to cause
- another stir in the computing community. At a whopping 672 pages, it
- details 37 viruses--everything from a simple 44-byte virus to very
- sophisticated viruses designed for Windows and OS/2 as well as a Unix
- virus designed to create a new super-user account on the sly, thereby
- totally compromising the security of a system. The author also exposes
- all of the inside secrets behind polymorphic viruses and genetic
- viruses, and argues that anti-virus software may not be able to handle
- the threats posed by viruses for very much longer.
-
- Yet the book is not all gloom and doom. Dr. Ludwig also details
- various anti-virus measures, and provides the reader with several
- anti-virus programs (with full source), discussing how they work to
- eradicate viruses, and how viruses sometimes work their way around
- such measures. He also discusses so-called "good" viruses, those
- programs that combine self-reproduction with a useful function which a
- computer user might want. Included in his book is the KOH virus, a
- cryptography tool that secures the hard disk when installed.
-
- Responding to charges that he is encouraging the development of new
- viruses and causing trouble, Ludwig said that he believes his work
- does a lot of good by making solid technical information available to
- people who need to know it. "Using a black-box to solve your virus
- problems is foolish if you are in a high-level position where
- thousands of computers could go down or lives could be at stake. There
- is an intelligent programmer out there trying to foil the software you
- are using, and you are going to be the guniea pig, not the
- manufacturer. You need to take responsibility and rely on your own
- intelligence, rather than expecting some so-called expert to do your
- job for you, while you sit there not even so sure that this expert is
- really that expert--until it's too late. It takes intelligence to
- combat intelligence, and I'm not just saying that as some cute little
- quip--it's a mathematically proven fact, and I discuss it in the
- book."
-
- The Giant Black Book of Computer Viruses is available from American
- Eagle Publications, PO Box 1507, Show Low, AZ 85901, (800)719-4957,
- for $39.95 + 3.00 postage.
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Sun, 18 Oct 1995 22:51:01 CDT
- From: CuD Moderators <cudigest@sun.soci.niu.edu>
- Subject: File 5--Cu Digest Header Info (unchanged since 18 Oct, 1995)
-
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- ------------------------------
-
- End of Computer Underground Digest #7.83
- ************************************
-
-