VIRUS-L Digest Friday, 11 Nov 1988 Volume 1 : Issue 4
Today's Topics:
what should be done with Morris et al.
virus
Opinion on Internet Worm ramifications
Wozniak vs. Cohen
Linguistic remark
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Date: Thu, 10 Nov 88 19:03:55 EST
From: "Homer W. Smith" <CTM@CORNELLC>
Subject: what should be done with Morris et al.
I believe a fair and approporate action that should be taken
with Morris and others like him, (if proven guilty etc.) is some form
of community service in the field of computer security.
Having read about previous situations like this, I propose
that a 'WAR GAMES' be set up on purpose at many insitutions with
Good buys and Bad guys. The good guys try to write a secure system,
the bad guys try to break it. After a while they change sides.
Give them the run of the most advanced stuff on the planet, just not
connected to anything real, and let them try to crash the hell
out of it. The army plays games like this all the time with lasers
instead of bullets.
You know the most DANGEROUS thing about this whole thing is
not that computer systems are inherently unstable, but that PEOPLE
build them who can not refrain from the temptation to build in
billions of backdoors. THAT is what is going to bring us down.
And it is totally insane to think this does not affect
the nuclear weapons side of things. People who say it doesn't
know it does but want you to think it doesn't. Can't imagine why,
their ass will be blown up with the rest of us.
Homer W. Smith
Hubbard Fractal Research Laboratory
Cornell National Supercomputer Facility.
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Date: Thu, 10 Nov 88 19:19:40 EST
From: "Homer W. Smith" <CTM@CORNELLC>
Subject: virus
I am sorry. I just had a silly thought.
The only way out of this mess is get out of the business.
Once the Russians and Americans realize that there is no
saftey in computer controlled Nuclear Weapons they will
disarm them faster than you can say, 'Well what do you know!'
Homer
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Date: Thu, 10 Nov 1988 20:49:43 EST
From: Ken van Wyk <
[email protected]>
Subject: Opinion on Internet Worm ramifications
I hope that, if nothing else, the Internet Worm has opened the
public's eyes (even more) to the dangers of viruses and worms. Robert
Morris, Jr. (allegedly) wrote what was intended to be a simple
experiment and it ended up costing thousands of dollars in manpower to
stop. Of course, if he had meant to be malicious about it, he could
have caused untold amounts of damage. This sounds sensationalistic
(almost as if it should've been in the press...), but the fact is that
it is true. RTM's intent wasn't to do damage; merely to satisfy
intellectual curiousity by proving that it could be done. A person
with his knowledge could've destroyed more work than anyone will ever
know.
Unfortunately, the realist (read: pessimist) in me says that the worm
will not only open the public's eyes to the problem, but it will
probably increase its paranoia. People will grow to distrust the
networks and will be (at least) hesitant to share information and
programs. If this case ends up decreasing the usefulness of the
networks, or even abolishing them altogether, then this "harmless"
worm will have done more damage than you and I can imagine. Everyone
reading this knows how useful the networks are and how much of a
disaster it would be if they were gone. William Murray told me of an
interesting analogy in which some kids in New York city were setting
off fire alarms in their boredom; it made lots of noise, and they got
to see a show when the fire trucks came roaring down the street.
Pretty soon the dispatchers starting not trusting the fire alarms
until one day a large building (I can't remember which) burned to the
ground after several alarms in the building were set off and
subsequently ignored by the dispatcher. Of course, fire alarms are
great and should be used, but if they're not to be trusted, then their
utility is greatly diminished. It would certainly be a travesty if
the networks were to share the same fate.
Ken
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Date: THU NOV 10, 1988 23.54.29 EST
From: "David A. Bader" <DAB3@LEHIGH>
Subject: Wozniak vs. Cohen
I think that the Stephen Wozniak / Fred Cohen debate on ABC tonight is
a lot better than the presidential debates! :-)
Anyway, what do we, the computer experts, feel about these ideas on
viruses affecting other private systems (is it real, or just a media
"hacking" good or bad?
-David Bader
DAB3@LEHIGH
[Ed. Ack! I missed the debate (L.A. Law...)! Does anyone have it on
video tape, and/or could someone please post a summary of what was
discussed?]
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Date: 10 November 88, 20:14:13 MEZ
From: Otto Stolz +49 7531 88 2645 RZOTTO at DKNKURZ1
Subject: Linguistic remark
Hi gang,
recently a fellow (sorry, I can't be more specific as I've been too
quick with my DISCARD command) complained on the pseudo-plural form
"virii". Sure, "virii" isn't appropriate, as it doesn't comply with
the rules of any language -- but "viri" isn't right, either!
"Virus" stems from the Latin language (meaning "slime"). It is one
of the very, very rare words of neutral gender ending in "-us" and
following the so called O-declination:
virus (nom.)
viri (gen.)
viro (dat.)
virus (acc. -- specific to neutral gender)
viro (abl.)
Normally, the neutral words in this scheme end in "-um", and the
plural in "-a", while masculine words end in "-us" and "-i".
Also in other cases, the plural of neutral words tends to end
on "-a".
Now, is the correct plural form "viri" or "vira"??
In the book on Latin grammar available to me, the plural form of these
neutral "-us" o-declination words isn't mentioned at all. After a
while, I came to a conclusion: the only words of this kind I could
find have no plural forms, at all! (There is no plural of "slime"
either, is it? :-)
Hence, if you need a plural for "virus", don't try to use a Latin (or
pseudo-Latin :-) form -- "viruses" (English) or "Viren" (German) is
definitely more appropriate.
Btw: I prefer "virus strains".
I hope I haven't annoyed you, and I definitely don't want to raise
this to a regular VIRUS-L topic.
Best regards to everybody who read up to this point
Otto
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