Date: 03 Feb 93 18:04:58 EST
From: Gordon Meyer <
[email protected]>
Subject: File 3--Unemployed Programmers Turning their Talents to Evil
Computer hackers in former communist countries are creating
mischievous and sometimes costly viruses that threaten computers
around the world.
Anti-virus researchers and special police units in the US and Europe
are trying to thwart the viruses and find the culprits, US and
British authorities say.
"You've got a lot of frustrated programmers in the East who've
turned their attention to creating viruses," says Detective
Constable Chris Pierce, a member of Scotland Yard's 5-member
computer crime unit.
Investigators say Bulgaria is the source of more than 200 viruses
that threaten Western computers, including the irritating Yankee
Doodle, which makes infected machines stop normal functions to play
the all-American song.
The Bulgarian virus industry developed, Pierce says, because
programmers there have a lot of knowledge and skill but no market
for their services in the economically depressed country.
Computer viruses are commands usually hidden in legitimate programs
and designed to attach themselves to files on the computer's
"hard drive" data storage device.
Once on the hard drive, viruses perform pranks, ranging from emitting
harmless noises to eating up files. They can foul up home computers,
and companies have lost hundreds of thousands of dollars rooting them
out.
Some of the newest and most insidious viruses reportedly are coming
from Russia, including one called LoveChild, which lies dormant but
sets up a countdown that could take years. After an infected computer
is turned on the 5000th time, all its memory is erased.
Paul Mungo and Bryan Clough, in the February issue of Discover
magazine, say an unidentified East Coast company lost $1 million
because of a virus created by a Bulgarian known as the Dark Avenger.
The article, excerpted from an upcoming book, describes the
electronic exploits of the Avenger, whose work is known to Western
police agencies.
The authors call 1 of his latest creations, Mutating Engine, "the
most dangerous virus ever" because it can disguise itself 4 billion
ways and has no constant characteristic that would let anti-virus
scanners detect it.
Little is known of the Avenger, the authors say, except that he
probably graduated from Sofia University in math or science, needs
money and is infatuated with Diana, princess of Wales, whose name
pops up in some of his viruses.
Mungo and Clough chronicle the Dark Avenger's appearances on
international computer bulletin boards. One Bulgarian-based
board, they say, has been set up just to exchange viruses.
Pierce says most viruses written in Bulgaria and Russia are not
actually "out in the wild," where they can get into foreign
computers.
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