Xref: utzoo comp.sys.atari.st:14737 comp.sys.apple:11121 comp.sys.mac:28617 comp.sys.ibm.pc:26253 Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!snjsn1!bilbo!greg From: greg@bilbo (Greg Wageman) Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st,comp.sys.apple,comp.sys.mac,comp.sys.ibm.pc Subject: Re: Virus 101: Chapter 3 Message-ID: <753@snjsn1.SJ.ATE.SLB.COM> Date: 17 Mar 89 21:47:02 GMT References: <4035@ttidca.TTI.COM> <11179@ut-emx.UUCP> Sender: news@SJ.ATE.SLB.COM Reply-To: greg@sj.ate.slb.com (Greg Wageman) Organization: Schlumberger ATE, San Jose, CA Lines: 71 In article <11179@ut-emx.UUCP> osmigo@emx.UUCP (Ron Morgan) writes: >[George Woodside posts a continuation of "Virus 101"] > >You mentioned 1 out of 4 e-mail respondents falling in the "you idiot!" >category. Count me, too, you idiot...|-:} *You* are the idiot. >No, your articles don't tell "how to write a virus" in the sense of providing >sample source code, but they certainly present a clear blueprint. You go into >great detail about how viruses can work, where they need to go, how they >overcome obstacles and protections, etc., to the point of naming specific >disk sectors. >You state that a non-programmer won't get anything out of your article, and >that a programmer can easily find this information in "any good computer >book." If that's the case, why post it in the first place? Gimme a break. The information is useful to me, a professional programmer, so that I can recognize the symptoms of known viruses, should my systems catch any, and know what steps to take to remove them, and what damage control/recovery options I have. Got that? Yes, I could figure out (easily) how to write one of these babies from systems manuals. I don't need or want to do that. I also don't want to have to reverse-engineer existing viruses myself, if someone else has that information. Especially not after a virus hits; by then I've got enough trouble. No, I applaud Mr. Woodside's postings and encourage him to continue. >Also, keep in mind that comp.sys.mac is uploaded to many, many Mac BBS's >around the country, including underground "outlaw" BBS's populated largely >by high school and college hackers. I know of more than one local BBS of >this type, where you can download virtually every Mac program on the market, >and some people on there would LOVE to get their hands on this kind of >information. You know of BBS's that encourage theft, and you don't report them to the FBI? That *is* idiocy! If you were really the upstanding citizen you pretend to be, you would take steps to see these pirate boards shut down. They are not doing the software industry any good, nor are they any sort of modern "Robin Hoods", taking valuable software from "rich" software companies (Ha!) and distributing it to poor users. They are thieves. >Your articles remind me of a Reader's Digest article I saw some time back >on "How to Protect Your House From Burglars." It was the best article on >"How to burglarize a house" I'd ever seen. Oh? I suppose it told you what sorts of tools you'd need to break in, and listed sources? More likely it simply described well-known weak points in the house AND TOLD HOW TO CORRECT THEM. The same way Mr. Woodside's postings do. I'll bet you believe that distributing clean hypodermic needles to heroin addicts encourages people to use drugs, too. Give *us* a break. Longish .signature follows. Skip now, or don't complain! Greg Wageman ARPA: greg@sj.ate.slb.com Schlumberger Technologies BIX: gwage 1601 Technology Drive CIS: 74016,352 San Jose, CA 95110-1397 UUCP: ...!uunet!sjsca4!greg (408) 437-5198 ------------------ There's nothing I hate more than a Usenet posting which took three seconds to compose and three minutes to type, glibly dismissing three years (or three decades) of an author's work in three lines. ------------------ Opinions expressed herein are solely the responsibility of the author. (And the author wouldn't have it any other way.)