Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!usc!polyslo!vlsi3b15!vax1.cc.lehigh.edu!sei.cmu.edu!krvw From: mrc@Tomobiki-Cho.CAC.Washington.EDU (Mark Crispin) Newsgroups: comp.virus Subject: virus sociology Message-ID: <0001.8907241308.AA00452@ge.sei.cmu.edu> Date: 21 Jul 89 20:10:28 GMT Sender: Virus Discussion List Lines: 23 Approved: krvw@sei.cmu.edu I've been reading this newsgroup for a while now, and have come to speculate about whether or not the situation is going to become self-perpetuating. That is, I'm sure that the human scum who write viri are doing so for the same reasons that any act of vandalism is committed. The motivations of attention getting and of maliciously hurting innocent (and often unknown) people are common to all vandals. The question is: can we speculate that many, if not most, of this scum reads (and perhaps participates) in this newsgroup? Isn't the effort of cataloging all the viri egging the scum on to greater efforts? The next question is: how much effort should we be putting into getting the vendors of various machines and operating systems to design their software to be virus-proof as opposed to writing new virus detectors/fixers? Let's face it, the current generation of personal computers have non-existant security not only from viri but also from user screwups. Mark Crispin / 6158 Lariat Loop NE / Bainbridge Island, WA 98110-2020 mrc@CAC.Washington.EDU / MRC@WSMR-SIMTEL20.Army.Mil / (206) 842-2385 Atheist & Proud / 450cc Rebel pilot -- a step up from 250cc's!!!