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From: kerchen@iris.ucdavis.edu (Paul Kerchen)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st,comp.sys.apple,comp.sys.mac,comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: Right of reply, virus- public, private- a thin line
Message-ID: <3763@ucdavis.ucdavis.edu>
Date: 3 Mar 89 19:15:21 GMT
References: <14940@cup.portal.com> <817@sering.cwi.nl> <3945@ttidca.TTI.COM> <20974@agate.BERKELEY.EDU> <15261@cup.portal.com>
Sender: uucp@ucdavis.ucdavis.edu
Reply-To: kerchen@iris.ucdavis.edu (Paul Kerchen)
Organization: U.C. Davis - Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
Lines: 24

In article <15261@cup.portal.com> Bob_BobR_Retelle@cup.portal.com writes:
> 
>The thing about disassembling a virus is that first you need to HAVE an
>example to disassemble...   if the (stereotyped:nasty teenaged hacker with
>nothing better to do) can't get hold of one to study, maybe he'll go make
>explosives in his garage with the instructions he downloaded from the
>local BBS instead...
> 

I have to disagree.  By making this statement, the implication is that
viruses are not a problem.  If it's *so* difficult to get a virus,
then why is everyone up in arms about viruses?  If this deranged
teenager has access to a BBS, he certainly has access to viruses,
since BBS's are prime vectors of infection.  Folks will always resist
when others put controls on what they can and can not do and putting
controls on information is no exception.  Trying to stop the flow of
virus information is like the war on drugs--if you can't get it here
then just walk down the block.  The Internet is not the only source of 
information about anything.  If folks can't find what they're looking 
for here, they'll just go somewhere else.  I'd rather not see that happen.



Paul Kerchen				| kerchen@iris.ucdavis.edu