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From: ttidca.TTI.COM!hollombe%sdcsvax@ucsd.edu (The Polymath)
Newsgroups: comp.virus
Subject: Re: Sophisticated Viruses
Message-ID: <0009.8911161700.AA03975@ge.sei.cmu.edu>
Date: 15 Nov 89 02:21:24 GMT
Sender: Virus Discussion List <VIRUS-L@IBM1.CC.Lehigh.EDU>
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Approved: krvw@sei.cmu.edu

krvw@SEI.CMU.EDU (Kenneth R. van Wyk) writes:
}WHMurray@DOCKMASTER.ARPA writes:
}
}>> ...in part because writing a virus that no one notices is not any
}>> fun.  If no one notices, then it is not possible to know about
}>> propagation or survival.  What fun is that?
}
}There's an important distinction to be made here - detection during
}propagation vs. detection after (presumably) successful propagation.
}A virus could well attempt to conceal its existence while propagating,
}and then do quite the opposite (!) during a destructive phase.  No one
}would notice until it would be too late.

Here's another scary thought.  All the viruses I've heard of so far
appear to be the work of malicious amateurs.  I can think of
motivations that might inspire a professional:

     An unfriendly government wants to cause dislocation in the United
     States.  It commissions a difficult to detect virus that spends 5
     years propagating, then wipes the hard disks of every machine it's
     on, without warning or explanation.

     A spy puts out a sophisticated virus that does no damage.  It just
     looks for modems on serial ports and sends what looks like sensitive
     information to a central collection point. (What sort of information?
     How about comm program macro files containing account IDs and
     passwords?)

I'm sure you can think of other scenarios.  So can "they", whoever
"they" are.

The Polymath (aka: Jerry Hollombe, hollombe@ttidca.tti.com)  Illegitimis non
Citicorp(+)TTI                                                 Carborundum
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