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From: DSB100@PSUVM.PSU.EDU (David Barr)
Newsgroups: comp.virus
Subject: Re: Who should get what viruses
Message-ID: <0006.9009181331.AA11189@ubu.cert.sei.cmu.edu>
Date: 17 Sep 90 20:46:35 GMT
Sender: Virus Discussion List <VIRUS-L@LEHIIBM1>
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Approved: krvw@sei.cmu.edu

WHMurray@DOCKMASTER.NCSC.MIL says:

>Given the number of existing copies of Jerusalem B, I would likely
>give copy to almost anyone who asked for it.  My giving a copy of such
>a succesful virus to overtly and patently to someone who asks for it,
>is not likely to have any substantial effect on the size of the
>population of such copies, regardless of how they dealt with it.

What are the criteria of an 'out of control' virus?  Should one take
the same point of view with the common cold?  "It's out of control so
I don't care who I give it to?"

>I do not exercise any real control over Jerusalem B; it is out of
>control.

Who's to say Jerusulam B in particular is out of control?  Many
viruses are contained in a relatively small geographic area.
Spreading them around, no matter how prevalent in that one area, seems
foolish to me.  Last year, our labs were had an epidemic of WDEF
(Mac), and we had cases for months, until all the user's disks were
cleaned out.  Now we've been going for months now with very few
re-infections.  What is once a 'common' virus can be a rare one in
months, with the right detection software.

 / David Barr  |  Penn State CAC Student Consultant
| DSB100@psuvm.psu.edu     | dsbarr@endor.cs.psu.edu
| --- Trim that .sig!! --- | barr@barrstl.scol.pa.us