Xref: utzoo news.admin:3985 news.sysadmin:1422 Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!killer!vector!rpp386!jfh From: jfh@rpp386.Dallas.TX.US (John F. Haugh II) Newsgroups: news.admin,news.sysadmin Subject: Re: What I suspect happened (Re: THE virus) Message-ID: <8594@rpp386.Dallas.TX.US> Date: 13 Nov 88 06:37:20 GMT References: <3373@utastro.UUCP> Reply-To: jfh@rpp386.Dallas.TX.US (John F. Haugh II) Organization: River Parishes Programming, Dallas TX Lines: 27 In article <3373@utastro.UUCP> werner@utastro.UUCP (Werner Uhrig) writes: >My guess is, that Robert Morris Jr (who is a man and not a kid by any >standards of respect a 23-year old deserves - and which his technical >expertise and experience well demand) was working on his thesis or >his independent research interest, computer security and the lack >thereof, without any intention to actually let a worm loose on the >Internet, not now and not ever, when his tests got out of hand and >the worm escaped ..... My guess is, that Little Bobbie got his ego out of whack and couldn't resist the urge to let a really good virus loose. The alternative to trying multiple security flaws at once are numerous. Any benign virus would have served equally well. What has not been pointed out by the pro-Wormer faction is that there were a wealth of other options. He could have written a virus that sent mail to every user on the Internet. He could have changed all the motd files to include some clever saying, etc. He did *NOT* need to go as far as he did. He also could have put a time limit on the thing to prevent its unlimited, never ending spread. -- John F. Haugh II +----Make believe quote of the week---- VoiceNet: (214) 250-3311 Data: -6272 | Nancy Reagan on Artifical Trish: InterNet: jfh@rpp386.Dallas.TX.US | "Just say `No, Honey'" UucpNet : !killer!rpp386!jfh +--------------------------------------