Path: utzoo!utgpu!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!lll-tis!ames!hc!lanl!unm-la!unmvax!charon!cscbrkac
From: cscbrkac@charon.unm.edu (Lazlo Nibble)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple
Subject: Re: CyberAIDS warning--a real virus (Weishaar)
Message-ID: <3445@charon.unm.edu>
Date: 26 Jul 88 07:18:05 GMT
Reply-To: cscbrkac@unmc.UUCP (Lazlo Nibble)
Organization: Studio Nibble -- One Tree Hill, New Mexico
Lines: 36

David Whitney, MIT '90 writes:
> [reproduces the screen from the CyberAIDS II: Festering Hate virus]
>
> See that phone number? Why doesn't somebody forward that number along
> with "Kool/Rad Alliance" and "Rancid Grapefruit" as well as "Pig's
> Knuckle ELITE Research" off to the FBI? I want these assholes stopped.
>
> On second thought, I think *I'LL* call the FBI. Then we'll see what
> happens!

I guess making it to MIT doesn't preclude an amazing level of naivete.  What
happens will be *nothing*.  Apparently you've never seen a rag page, David.
The phone number is the answering machine of one of the country's best-known
private investigators of hackers.  I get it, HE released the thing in a effort
to "discredit" the hacking community!  Yeeeeah!  And of course the FBI has the
home addresses of ALL the members of the (mythical) "PK(E)R" and "K/RA",
including "Rancid Grapefruit."  Give me a freaking break.

Personally I'm starting to find this whole thing extremely amusing (I guess I
can, because I know *I'm* safe).  David, like the computer-naive journalists we
often see spreading garbage about computer issues in the mass media, completely
misunderstands the problem.  While he's spinning in circles trying to find the
designers of the virus, it travels merrily on, probably mutating itself as it
goes (word in the underground has CyberAIDS II pegged as a retrovirus, and if
anyone can pack a retrovirus AND a rag page into eight blocks of code, Lord
Digital's fanboys can) while he gets *nowhere*.  It's like the *real* AIDS,
folks . . . the virus is OUT, and the priority has to be in stopping it.  All
the fingerpointing and namecalling isn't going to save anyone's files.  You
*can't* catch the people responsible.  Direct your energies towards something
that'll *help* people.  THEN, when you've solved the problem, go on your snipe
hunt.

Looking forward to seeing Lord Digital's comments on CyberAIDS in his upcoming
book.

-- 
Lazlo Nibble (cscbrkac@charon.unm.edu)