Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!necntc!dandelion!ulowell!masscomp!rad
From: rad@masscomp.UUCP (Bob Doolittle)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: New Virus;deadly
Message-ID: <2739@masscomp.UUCP>
Date: 7 Jan 88 00:37:54 GMT
References: <2243@crash.cts.com>
Reply-To: rad@masscomp.UUCP (Bob Doolittle)
Organization: MASSCOMP - Westford, Ma
Lines: 44
Summary: virus!=pirated(software)

In article <2243@crash.cts.com> haitex@pnet01.cts.com (Wade Bickel) writes:
>dougl@ism780c.UUCP (Doug Leavitt) writes:
>>2)	LETS START TRACKING IT.  The best way to squelch this problem
>>	is to start finding the source(s).  I'm sure if we could name
>>	names, and show proof, Commodore could and would prosecute.
>>	Let's start doing so.  Here's some of the things that I think
>>	can be done:
>>
>
>                Be realistic!  Most people got a hold of this thing because
>           they were using pirated software.  So most of the sources are 
>           illegal and would require the admission of a criminal act on
>           the part of the victim.

I'm sorry, Wade, but that's off the wall.  I, for instance, acquired the
virus when taking my machine into an "Authorized Commodore Service
Center" here in the Boston area.  I don't want to broadcast names, but
they do a very major amount of service work for dealers (all over the
country), so anybody can get it.  The tech I worked with knew about the
virus, but didn't have the software to fix it.  Sadly, my experience
with techs in these places is that they typically don't know more than
how to handle a soldering iron, and this one was slamming in different
workbench disks like it was going out of style - he had a big box full
of variations, and I know they weren't checked.  It was just lucky the
disks weren't sitting in the pool of Coke at the back of his workbench.
I kid you not.  And he was touted as their sharpest tech.

The virus is a _real_ problem that affects us all, even those of us (are
we really so few?) who pay for what they use.  Doug is 100% correct, and
Commodore needs to send out virus checkers to their dealers and service
centers, and educate as best they can.  Or they lose a lot of biz.

And we need to be diligent about checking our disks and not propogating
the problem, especially stores and P.D. disk distributors.

P.S.  If anyone at Commodore cares, I'll gladly provide the name of the
service center where I got the virus.  I'm not sure what good it'd do at
this stage - it was the "Wonderful" virus which we already know a good
deal about and which is not as potentially dangerous as the disk wiper.
-- 
Once in a while
you get shown the light		UUCP Address:
in the strangest of places	 ...!{ihnp4,ulowell,ucbcad,gatech}!masscomp!rad
if you look at it right! -Robert Hunter