Path: utzoo!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!samsung!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!unix.cis.pitt.edu!dsinc!netnews.upenn.edu!vax1.cc.lehigh.edu!cert.sei.cmu.edu!krvw From: keir@vms.macc.wisc.edu (Rick Keir, MACC) Newsgroups: comp.virus Subject: Re: Research viruses Message-ID: <0001.9103111610.AA12780@ubu.cert.sei.cmu.edu> Date: 8 Mar 91 15:30:32 GMT Sender: Virus Discussion List Lines: 39 Approved: krvw@sei.cmu.edu XRJDM@SCFVM.GSFC.NASA.GOV (Joe McMahon) writes... >Research viruses: just say no. (goes on to quote rumor that the Mac Scores virus author "didn't expect it to get out", with implication that it was a "research" virus.) Several points: I said "rumor" since no one has ever admitted to being the author of Scores (numerous news stories in MacWeek, etc., quoting FBI and EDS officials as saying they "suspect" they know who it it -- i.e. no one has said they're the one). This makes is hard for the Vaxene documentation to quote the author of Scores in any believable fashion. Second, the comment about "didn't expect it to get out" is also subject to the interpretation that he/she meant "I just thought I'd screw up computers at EDS in Dallas and not anyone else's computers." While Scores does specifically target internally developed software of EDS, it infects all bootable systems and all applications that it comes in contact with, and does not distinguish the EDS systems from any other. This makes a claim that he/she was surprised by its spread not very believable. "Research" is becoming the computer equivalent of the claim that "I didn't know the gun was loaded", whether uttered by the virus writer or by the geek who abuses the net. Research is noted for : publication, sharing of information, useful purpose, and most importantly ETHICS OVERVIEW by one's peers. The so-called research of the average virus writer would fail on all counts: no knowledge is published; there is no knowledge to be gained; and no group of one's peers would judge the writing and release of the virus to be ethical. There can be useful research done on viruses, and for those purposes viruses may be written; however, those authors are working openly, publishing their work, and experimenting in conditions that prevent the spread of a virus to the general public. I can count the number of legitimate researchers I know of on one hand, and have fingers left over.