Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!bonnie.concordia.ca!thunder.mcrcim.mcgill.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!usc!sdd.hp.com!caen!uwm.edu!rutgers!netnews.upenn.edu!vax1.cc.lehigh.edu!cert.sei.cmu.edu!krvw From: p1@arkham.wimsey.bc.ca (Rob Slade) Newsgroups: comp.virus Subject: Stoned in Three Hills (PC) Message-ID: <0003.9102061308.AA27330@ubu.cert.sei.cmu.edu> Date: 4 Feb 91 19:10:31 GMT Sender: Virus Discussion List Lines: 80 Approved: krvw@sei.cmu.edu The following messages are crossposted from the SUZY network, in the Religion/INspiration section. The original infection was at a Bible school in Three Hills, Alberta, which managed to get the "Stoned" virus onto a network of computers in teh Library. The response of the school was to ship all the computers to Calgary to be reformatted. All data entered on the system to that point had to be re-entered manually ... > GrapeVine > Computers in Ministry > Slade, Greg ====== Subject: Nobody is safe The January 8th issue of ChristianWeek carries a news item from Wesern Report that Prairie Bible Institute in Three Hills, Alberta, was hit by the "Stoned" virus this winter. I find this story doubly frustrating: not only is it added evidence that churches and other Christian organizations need to pay more attention to issues of computer security (see INtegrity for the tools you need), it is a glaring example of the failure of Christians to communicate with one another. I have been trying for 3 years now to give Christian computer users they need to do their tasks effectively through various channels (Christian Info, CAMsoc, Church Bytes, CITC_NET, and Suzy), including warnings about computer viri, yet despite my best efforts, an institution which I visited *last Spring* gets hit by a virus, and spends way too much time and money dealing with it. When are we Christians going to learn to network? Date: 28 Jan 91 20:55 From: Lyle Smith on 7501/0 Unlisted node To: Greg Slade on 7501/132 Unlisted node Hi Greg: I regret to inform you that I will be pulling the plug on Prairie BBS as of Jan.31/91. I hope its not too late to cancel my listing in the article you were preparing. One of the key reasons for going down is lack of usership. Although Three Hills is a small town by city standards it probably has as high a computer user ratio per capita as anywhere due to the college. A significant number of those do not have modems but a good number do have modems. However not enough were interested in the messaging capabilities of the computer medium. On an average week I saw maybe 4 or 5 users. A busy week might bring 8 or 10. Yes, that's per week!!! No messages were ever sent out (other than my own) and the main interest among those who did use the BBS clearly was downloading files. When my video card fried itself recently, which I believe was due to the wear and tear of continuous running (heat mainly), I decided it wasn't worth the expense. I noted with some chuckles your note in the missions echo re: the stone virus at Prairie. I have modemed for 5 years and never caught a virus until I gave a disk to the computer department to format and on which to store some student scan tron scores. They passed the virus along to me on that disk but I didn't use it right away and so when I heard there was a possible virus I ran McAfee's SCAN checker on the disk and it picked it up instantly and told me exactly what variety virus it was. When I suggested, after the incident, that they need a security system and in addition to virus checkers they should limit user access to some terminals I was told by one individual: "We can't stop trusting people." To their credit they now have purchased some virus checking programmes but I am not so sure they have implemented any further precautions re: users to their terminals. All of this is part and parcel of the frustration I have struggled with of getting people interested in the computer/modem communication medium. If people took the time to avail themselves of what is so easily available to us we likely would not, as you pointed out, have borne the expense of this incident. The sad part, from my perspective, is that I cannot say for sure that the lesson has yet been learned. ================= Vancouver p1@arkham.wimsey.bc.ca _n_ Insitute for Robert_Slade@mtsg.sfu.ca H Research into (SUZY) INtegrity / User Canada V7K 2G6 O=C\ Security Radical Dude | O- /\_ /-----+---/ \_\ / | ` ||/ "A ship in a harbour is safe, but that / ||`----'|| is not what ships are built for." || || - John Parks `` ``