VIRUS-L Digest Tuesday, 13 Jun 1989 Volume 2 : Issue 136
Today's Topics:
Virus report from India (PC)
Re: naming confusion
Request for back issues of Virus Digest
Re: No Publishers' Viruses
A Taxonomy of "Electronic Biologicals" (Was: Net Hormones)
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Date: Mon, 12 Jun 89 16:25:05 edt
From: cliff%
[email protected] (Cliff Stoll)
Subject: Virus report from India (PC)
From NATURE magazine, volume 338, page 530,13 April 1989
Reported by K. S. Jayarman
PAKISTANI VIRUS INVADES INDIAN NEIGHBOR
'C-Bran', a computer virus of Pakistani origin, has hit personal computers
throughout India in what is thought to be the first epidemic of its kind
in the nation. The incident highlights India's extensive trade in pirated
software and copied floppy disks.
In just four weeks, "C-BRAN" showed up in comptuer schools and a private
company in Bangalore and in somee 20 companies in Bombay,
including an international bank. The virus was also reported
from Madras, Kanpur and Vijayawada, a small town where
750 of 1000 floppy disks used by a private company were
found to be infected. Scientists at the Delhi University
Computer Centre said their machines were invaded by the
'ashar' variant of the virus.
Dr. N.C. Kalra of the Indian Institute of Technology
in Delhi, who detected 'ashar' in the institute's computer,
blamed the epidemic on pirated software. No virus has yet shown
up in computers linked by electronic networks but government agencies
have been alerted. India's NICNET links the Cybercomputer
mainframe computer in the Planniing Commission with portable
computers in district headquarters while another network,
ERNET links the computer centres of eight educational enstitutions.
The six major commercial comptuer networks all claim to have
strengthened their security system following the epidemic.
Submitted by Cliff Stoll 12 June 89
[email protected]
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Date: Tue, 13 Jun 89 09:26:57 mdt
From:
[email protected] (Jeff Hull)
Subject: Re: naming confusion
> If you wish to continue this discussion, fine. But if it's anything
>more than a one-sentence apology for attributing false motives to me,
>mail your remarks to me personally. VIRUS-L is not a forum for poli-
>tics or slanders.
Perhaps e-mail to the moderator of this newsgroup/mailing list would
be sufficient to move your discussion with Mr. Morey elsewhere?
> Y. Radai
> Hebrew Univ. of Jerusalem
>
> P.S. On another subject: In Issue 116 (May 16) I posted a list of
>20 PC viruses and asked if anyone has comments to send them to me
>personally. It turns out that precisely at that time we had mailer
>problems and a lot of mail which was addressed to me didn't reach me.
>So if anyone sent me mail and didn't receive a reply, please re-send.
I was off the net for a month and didn't see your list. would you
please e-mail me a copy?
I am interested in developing a taxonomy of computer software with
special interest in "biological" software, i.e., software capable of
replicating itself, which includes viruses, worms, phages and others,
and a secondary interest in penetration algorithms. Would you please
favor me with any thoughts you have on this topic?
Blessed Be,
Jeff Hull ...!ncar!dinl!hull
1544 S. Vaughn Circle 303-750-3538 It was great when it all begaaaaan,
Aurora, CO 80012 I was a regular <USENET> faaaan, ....
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Date: Tue, 13 Jun 89 09:36:18 mdt
From:
[email protected] (Jeff Hull)
Subject: Request for back issues of Virus Digest
I have recently (re)joined the net (darned job. Takes me away from
the fun things in life.) and have just found the comp.virus newsgroup.
Could someone please send me (all?) the back issues of VIRUS-L digest
so I can catch up with what's going on?
[Ed. That's quite a tall order - the archives are in the order of a
few megabytes. You would do better to FTP them from
IBM1.CC.LEHIGH.EDU if you have Internet access, or e-mail request them
from
[email protected] (the e-mail must contain valid
LISTSERV commands such as HELP, INDEX, GET FILENAME, etc.). The
archives can also be found on lll-winken.llnl.gov.]
- --
Blessed Be,
Jeff Hull ...!ncar!dinl!hull
1544 S. Vaughn Circle 303-750-3538 It was great when it all begaaaaan,
Aurora, CO 80012 I was a regular <USENET> faaaan, ....
------------------------------
Date: 12 Jun 89 23:28:43 GMT
From:
[email protected] (Jeff Hull)
Subject: Re: No Publishers' Viruses
In virus-l 2:130, L. Anne Cole asked,
>>>
>>> Is it possible that the software packagers are spreading viruses to their
>>> competition (for obvious reasons). "Hi, I'm a virus, are you a database?
>>> Are you my database? CRUNCH." Sounds rather strange, but...
while in virus-l 2:131 Gordon Meyer responded,
>>
>> While I would like to think this isn't happening, there is evidence to the
>> contrary.
In article <
[email protected]>
[email protected] writes:
>
>Let us set the record straight on this subject:
>
>No known software publisher has ever intentionally released a virus
>into circulation,
HORSEFEATHERS! Perhaps you mean to say no software publisher is
publically known to have intentionally released a virus into
circulation. By definition, you, nor we, do not know of "secret" or
"undiscovered" releases of viruses by software publishers. there may
be some or there may be none. But YOU DON'T KNOW!
>nor is it likely that any would do so, as it would
>be contrary to their interests.
HORSEFEATHERS! Several scenarios have been proposed in which a
software publisher would gain some advantage from releasing a virus,
provided only that knowledge of such behavior could be kept secret.
Anne Cole provides one such in her article cited above. The undetected
release of a virus in a purportedly stolen copy of proprietary software
could easily deter people who might otherwise be just a little casual
in their software acquisition policies. A clear benefit to software
publishers.
>Viruses threaten the entire software industry
Not clear. And certainly not proven.
>and expose the releasing party to an enormous legal liability.
If caught and if sufficient evidence can be collected to prove such in
a court of law.
>As "evidence to the contrary" Mr. Myer cites an article he read which
>in turn vaguely suggested that some (unnamed and unnameable)
>developers "might be introducing viruses as a means to fight software
>piracy."
Mr. Meyer did not offer any evidence. I wish he would! Or anyone
else out there who has some EVIDENCE. Not just a story without
substantiation.
>The idea of releasing viruses to protect intellectual property rights
>sounds as bizarre to us as would be the idea of bombing libraries to
>protect authors' copyrights.
Let's compare apples to apples, please. The accurate comparison is
the bombing of a printing shop which makes copies of a book without
paying the author's royalties. A clear benefit to the author.
Blessed Be,
Jeff Hull ...!ncar!dinl!hull
1544 S. Vaughn Circle 303-750-3538 It was great when it all begaaaaan,
Aurora, CO 80012 I was a regular <USENET> faaaan, ....
------------------------------
Date: 13 Jun 89 16:01:07 GMT
From:
[email protected] (Jeff Hull)
Subject: A Taxonomy of "Electronic Biologicals" (Was: Net Hormones)
In article <
[email protected]>
Dr. David S. Stodolsky <@uunet.uu.net:
[email protected]>
responds to earlier discussions and questions raised by
Chris McDonald <
[email protected]> regarding Dr.
Stodolsky's paper "Net hormones: Part 1 - Infection control assuming
cooperation among computers "
In an article that I haven't seen yet, D. Platt discusses biological
analogues for software. [ Platt, D. (1989b, May 10). Biological
analogues. Virus-L Digest , 2(112).]
At the 10th National Computer Security Conference (Oct 1987) a paper
was given on the Taxonomy of Computer Viruses. In my opinion, that
paper should be expanded upon, developed into a comprehensive taxonomy
of computer software, and should be made available to every university
library and computer scientist. My attention has been diverted to
other endeavors in the intervening year and a half, so possibly such
work is on-going without my being aware of it. If so, would this
group kindly direct me. If not, could we start such a compilation and
classification?
Blessed Be,
Jeff Hull ...!ncar!dinl!hull
1544 S. Vaughn Circle 303-750-3538 It was great when it all begaaaaan,
Aurora, CO 80012 I was a regular <USENET> faaaan, ....
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