Interview with Skism One - AKA Lord SSS (triple S)
This interview was taken by Hellraiser on July 7, 1991 in Washington
Square Park, Manhatten.
HR: So what got you started in the virus business?
SSS: Well, I used to write graffiti all over and that got sort of
played out, so I needed something else distructive to do. So
I started getting into computers, then the next thing you know
I'm writing viruses.
HR: What was you first experence with viruses?
SSS: Well the first time I heard of them was when that dickhead got
arrested for putting the worm...
HR: You mean Morris?
SSS: Yeah that asshole, it was on the news and all that - so I got
to thinking, that would be a cool thing to do.
HR: What was the first virus you ran across?
SSS: Ha... Some dick gave me a copy of (pause) it think it was
Norton 4.0 when it first came out. So I took it home and put
it on my hard drive. The next thing you know all this weird
shit starts going on. Like programs won't run and this little
box opens up on the bottom of my screen all of a sudden. So I
get a copy of SCAN, then I find out almost all my files are
infected with Jerusalem.
HR: What did you do?
SSS: Well I re-formatted the drive and examined the copy of Jeru for
months. Then one day I used a Hex editor to change the suMSDOs
string to SKISM-1. Then I went to all the computers I could
find and infected them. The next thing you know my friend
shows me this list with my name on it. It was Patti Hoffmans
document. Shit, I thought I was the man back then.
HR: Then what?
SSS: Then - well I got into assembler and dissasembly and I started
to learn how to modify the code and all that. The next thing
you know I had made my own virus from the scraps of Jeru.
HR: Captian Trips, right?
SSS: Yeah, sort of. Then someone I know sent it to all the boards
in town under a trojan name and fucked a lot of peoples shit
up. Oh well. Then I guess I grew out of the scavenger mode
and started writting my own shit, from scratch.
HR: Like what?
SSS: Well they were all called Skism so and so, like Skism 10, Skism
11 and all that. Then I meet people and they started helping
me out and now we got this thing going on.
HR: You mean Smart Kids Into Sick Methods?
SSS: Yeah, you know all thid did did dat.
HR: How do you name your viruses?
SSS: Well depends whats on my mind. Skism was my tag for like four
years, so I thought it would be cool if people saw my name in
the newspaper and all that. I got Captian Trips after reading
The Stand, by Stephen King. 1992 was just what I named it cause
the virus came out to be about 1945 bytes so I jusy padded it out
to next years date. 808 was named after the TR-808, a 'drum
machine' used in hip-hop.
HR: Whats the latest projects?
SSS: You know, you wrote most of the shit.
HR: Tell them. The people.
SSS: Well, we did SKISM 1992, which was funny, then a member of
SKISM, who shall be nameless made 808. Now I'm just taking a
break from viruses and computers for the summer.
HR: You stopped?
SSS: Your crazy, nah - It's got to wait a while, then I'll get back
into it - when school starts again.
HR: What do you think of McAffe?
SSS: He's cool, what the fuck am supposed to say. He does a good
job at spreading my name around. I really like Pat Hoffman,
thanks for the write ups. You got to understand - these people
make us into infamous villians. I can deal with that.
HR: Do you mind them detecting your viruses?
SSS: Nah, fuck it - If my shit can make it from NY to California
without effort, it shows it works. Thats it. Thers a lot more
where that came from. One more thing, I hate that gay bitch
Ross Greenburg author of Flu-Shot. What
a dick. He's just an asshole tring to sell his shit product.
He's got a big mouth and instead of crashing his board, I'd
like to kick his fucken ass. Where's his office? Up one 57th
right? Lets take a walk. Just kiddin' but the guys product
sucks and he's just a greedy asshole. I'm glad I sent a trojan
version of his virus scanner around. Ha you dick!
HR: What virus authors do you look up to?
SSS: Myself - Ha Ha (laughter) Ha Ha. No, I love Whale - that was
clever. I like Dark Avenger, the real one. Its hard to be
original, and these guys were. Hats off you crazy fuckin'
Bulgarian Metal-Head!
HR: What about groups of virus writers?
SSS: I think were the only one. Oh yeah and those Rabid people you
told me about, yeah there just like us - people tring to make
there mark in the world, or should I say dent in the world.
Germans are bugging out too - Shit, they write half the shit out
there these days. More power to them
HR: What is your advise to people who want to write viruses?
SSS: Get a late pass! No as I said more power to you. Just remember
you got to have style and learn to be ORIGINAL.
HR: What next from you?
SSS: I don't really know. I'm waiting to hook up a few more people
to the pack, then we'll get the thing rollin HARD. Till then
'A little at a time...'
At the time this artical was finished, the Skism team was at work on
a new virus code named Bad Brains.
