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From: clear@actrix.co.nz (Charlie Lear)
Newsgroups: comp.virus
Subject: Re: Viruses Rhyme And Reason
Message-ID: <0014.9001081228.AA09399@ge.sei.cmu.edu>
Date: 7 Jan 90 04:18:00 GMT
Sender: Virus Discussion List <VIRUS-L@IBM1.CC.Lehigh.EDU>
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Approved: krvw@sei.cmu.edu

Bill.Weston@f12.n376.z1.FIDONET.ORG (Bill Weston) writes:
>I'm not sure that writing viruses will ever stop.
>
>Ross Greenberg wrote perhaps the best psychological profile of the
>"virus programmer" that I have ever read.  (It's in the docs of
>FLUSHOT, you've all read it...)
>
> The virus writer likes causing damange.  He thinks it's funny and makes him
>feel powerful.
> To this day, tha STONED virus still infects thousands of systems all over the
>world.  (Poorly written as it is..)
>
>The target of many virus writers are the millions of PC users who don't know
>much about computers.  The novice user, or perhaps the user who knows how to
>run programs but does not know much about DOS, is the primary mark.  A friend
>of mine was just such a person.  Less than 20 days after buying his PC he was
>hit by the STONED virus.  He did not know how to protect himself.  Lots of
>grins for the programmer.

One day, you'll actually write something you know something about,
Bill... 8-)

The schoolkid who wrote the Stoned virus did it on a dare from an
Amiga owner who was suffering from the first effects of the SCA virus.
It was believed *impossible* by the "experts" for a PC virus to be
written, so he went ahead and wrote a simple, non-destructive bsv on a
standard XT.  Having written it, the consequences of unleashing it
became a bit much to think about, so he made sure all copies were
destroyed bar one which he kept at his house.

Despite being under lock and key, his little brother and a couple of
his friends thought it would be a huge joke to steal the disk and
deliberately infect disks in a local computer store.  This was fine,
but after the initial laffs it proved impossible to trace ALL infected
disks and the STONED epidemic was born.

Since then, the programmer has lived a very cloistered, paranoic life.
Huge publicity has done nothing to help his studies or his state of
mind, even though his identity has not been publicly revealed.  The
last burst of publicity was later discovered to be a protection
mechanism for the guy, although front page coverage on a capital city
daily is bizarre protection.

It seems that after the "blue" side in an Australian army exercise
deliberately infected "red" side computers with the virus to gain
military advantage, certain people in certain security organisations
wished to interview the man who wrote Stoned.  The press coverage
allegedly stopped a kidnap attempt in its tracks - the threat of a
full diplomatic incident was too much for the Aussies and they went
home.

Of course, I have no documentary proof of the above as anyone
connected with the writing or dissemination of a virus would be stupid
to write anything down.  I believe I have just illustrated how an
"innocent" prove-it-can-be-done scenario can turn unbelievably bad.
Is it really the programmers fault that the virus does not damage 360k
floppies or 20meg XT disks, and only becomes a danger when used on
large capacity floppies or big hard disks?  He had no access to, or
knowledge of, such hardware when he wrote it...

- --
Charlie "The Bear" Lear: Call The Cave BBS, 64(4)643429 157MB Online!
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