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From: microsoft!c-rossgr@uunet.uu.net
Newsgroups: comp.virus
Subject: re: The Shape of the World (PC)
Message-ID: <0008.9105101443.AA06343@ubu.cert.sei.cmu.edu>
Date: 10 May 91 04:39:54 GMT
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>From:    "David.M.Chess" <CHESS@YKTVMV.BITNET>
>
>Do these two things match the experience of other anti-virus workers?
>Can anyone give some examples of viruses that were at one time thought
>to be "collector only", but later showed up in the wild?  (Very
>isolated incidents, such as the rather obvious direct 'seeding' of an
>end-user machine with a stupid virus like the Whale, don't really
>count.)

>As a sort of a spot-check, has anyone ever seen any of the
>"Anti-Pascal" viruses (AP-400, -440, -480, -529, -605, I think they
>are; something like that) infecting an end-user machine?  (I ask about
>these just because they're sort of prototypical "collector-only"
>viruses; rather stupid, and seemingly unlikely to spread.)

Dave: A telling anecdote: at the Trenton Computer Fair last month,
about 100 people crammed into a room to hear about some of the new
virues.  When asked who had been infected with a virus, about 80% of
the people raised their hands.  I asked those infected with Jerusalum,
Stoned and Ping-Pong to drop their hands.  One hand was left. Cascade.

This loud cry for protection against research-only viruses is quite
quite bothersome -- the numbers game we have to play (as a vendor) in
order to counter "my scanner can beat up your scanner" type of games
is sorta foolish -- yet we must play the game.

Ross