Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!seismo!sundc!pitstop!sun!decwrl!labrea!aurora!amelia!ames!sri-spam!rutgers!mcnc!ecsvax!mvolo
From: mvolo@ecsvax.UUCP (Michael R. Volow)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: more on the FLUSHOT2.ARC anti-virus program
Message-ID: <4594@ecsvax.UUCP>
Date: 11 Feb 88 14:13:05 GMT
References: <1155@microsoft.UUCP>
Organization: UNC Educational Computing Service
Lines: 20
Summary: Who's making the viruses



[stuff on anti-virus programs]

With all the news on virus and anti-virus programs, I have not seen
one posting about the possible sources of virus programs.  I mean,
one can imagine about some malcontent hacker[D[D[D[D[D[D[D[C[C[Ct, covertly aggressive programmer,
complete with speculations about destructive impulses.  But seriously,
are there other possibilities.  There must be some scuttlebutt in the
programming community(ies).   If these are skillfully written programs,
then they are probably not the work of novices.  Could some commercial
software concern be covertly interested in discouraging shareware?  Is
geography (early reports from Leheigh, Pa.) be helpful in figuring this
out?  Or is the existance of such programs just an accepted part of the
hacking scene, kind of an accepted "cold war" between legitimate and
fringe programmers?

Michael Volow, M.D.
Dept of Psychiatry, Durham VA Medical Center, Durham, N.C. 27705
919 286 0411                           mvolo@ecsvax.UUCP