In the News Brought to you by Horny Toad I decided to continue the "In the News" section of the Codebreakers zine, but with a slight twist. I am going to try and include numerous bits of interesting virus news from around the world to keep you informed of the current virus and AV situation. VIRII IN OUTER SPACE!!!!!!! When I first heard about this, I was not only extremely excited and proud, but jealous as hell of the dude that accomplished this. October 97 - NASA reports that the computers they are using to send email back and forth between Houston and Moscow and the Mir space station have been plagued by a computer virus. The email attachments that both NASA and the Moscow ground station use have been infected with a macro virus. (Way to go macro coders!) The macro virus has been particularly effective in infecting the Macintosh "ground unit" computers that are used to transmit email to the Mir space station. Supposedely, the virus was finally detected and eliminated from email attachments to American astronaut David Wolf right before they were about to be sent to the Mir. The outcome of the infection has forced NASA and Moscow to cease using attachments to their email. They are now being forced to fax many important documents to one another. James Oberg, a space engineer for the Mir project, has testified before congress that, although this particular virus did not spread to the space station, there has been several serious infections over the past year to the laptop computers on board Mir. (I wonder what the first virus in space was!?!) HT - Well, my fellow virus writers, incredible accomplishment or slight set-back? You can look at it two ways: 1. If you like attention and publicity an keeping the public scared of virii, then this was a success. 2. For those of you that are trying to convince the world that there is such thing as a non-destructive virus, this was a set-back. People here the word "virus" and all they think of is destruction and trouble, they don't ask, "Well, is it a well-behaved virus or an evil one?" "VIRGIN" COMPUTERS INFECTED October 97 Compaq Computer Corp Japan announced that 10 percent of the Presario 2210 PCs were infected with a virus during manufacture in Taiwan. The infected computers were only domestic sales. Apparently, the virus paralyzes the computers CD-ROM drive. The cause of the problem was that the diagnostic software that they use to detect hardware defects was infected with a virus. The virus is said to originate from Japan due to the strings that were found in the code and the way that the OS was infected. HT - Way to go Japanese virus writers! You guys are ruthless, infecting computers before they have even been sold. Damn good job! POOR BARRY! I thought that I would include this article copied write from The Orlando Sentinel. It gave me a little laugh, how the average computer lamer views virii. By Barry Cooper I've never considered myself a cynic, but I will admit to this: I used to think that all the talk about computer viruses was little more that media hype designed to sell anti-virus software. Now I know better. I spent much of last week battling a powerful macro virus that was taking control of my Microsoft Word program. A virus is a rogue program designed to copy itself into your computer's memory and then on to the hard drive. Once it invades, it can destroy programs and files or even prevent your computer from turning on. The virus on my computer made it impossible to save Microsoft Word files in the proper format. This angered me. I had several important documents I needed to write and send to a colleague by email. He was expecting the files to have a certain file name, but each time I tried to save the files, Microsoft Word gave them a different name than I had requested. It took me the better part of an evening to learn what had happened. My computer had been struck by the Prank virus. Actually, all viruses are pranks. They are written by hackers who imbed them in e-mail or other programs and spread them through the Internet and on floppy disks. Often, viruses go undetected - unless you have an anti-virus program installed. I got rid of my virus by installing a fix I found on a Microsoft Word bulletin board. Now, I am a firm believer in anti-virus programs, and you should be too. Viruese are growing at such an alarming rate that we now have the computer version of the Centers For Disease Control. Symantec, a company that writes anti-virs software, has opened the AntiVirus Research Center. According to the center, three to six new viruses are discovered daily. In the last four months, the center says, more then 200 Microsoft Word viruses have been discovered. Why do people create computer viruses? For the same reasons that kids spray paint subway trains with graffiti. For some people, it's a cheap thrill. For the rest of us, it's a pain in the neck. Years ago, viruses seemed harmless. You'd unknowingly download a virus and later see "ha ha" or "gotcha" flash on your screen, and then it would be over. Today's viruses are more destructive. You can protect yourself by: Buying an anti-virus program. Programs by Symantec, Norton, McAfee, and IBM are considered the best, but buying the program is just the start. The program should be updated at least every six months. Remember, new viruses are being created every day. Your anti-virus program starts becoming obsolete the day you install it. Your anti-virus program's instruction manual should tell you how you can update the software. Usually it's just a matter of downloading additional software for the Internet. Carefully checking all e-mail attachments. An attachment is a file attached to an e-mail message. Many hackers use sophisticated e-mail programs to mail viruses to hundreds of unsuspecting people. They get e-mail addresses from chat rooms or online service member directories. You should have your anti-virus software scan any file you receive or download over the Internet. Using caution with floppy disks. Viruses are also spread through infected disks. Let's say you and I work in the same office. You ask me to create a memo in Microsoft Word and save it to a floppy disk so you can review it on your home computer. But neither of us realizes that my computer is infected with the Prank virus. I hand you the floppy disk, and you take it home - transfering the Prank virus to your PC. Tip: Have your anti-virus program scan any strange floppy disk before loading files from the disk. Your computer may have a virus even though you've noticed no cause for alarm. Take a closer look. Does your computer seem to want to access or write information to the floppy drive a lot? That could mean a virus. Has your hard drive's performance suddenly become sluggish? A virus may be at work. Get an updated anti-virus program if you have any doubts. That's your best protections against all the pranks being played by hackers. HT - So, do you feel sorry for Barry? Come on Barry, we are not all that bad, or are we? For those of you that are just getting started in virus writing, don't listen to what this freak has to say. Or at least chuckle with what he has to say. I included this testimony so that you know who you are up against when you send your virii out to the public. Barry is going to be out there with his copy of McAfee to stop you. Are you scared yet? You better be, he might even use his "IBM" AV program against you. Ha ha ha! If you care to write Barry, his email address is: barrycooper@worldnet.att.net. Be kind. DR. WHITE'S ELITE AV TEAM October 97 Look out for Steve White to be coming on strong in the AV scene. He has assembled a team of 40 AV experts with the goal to make our job next to impossible. Good luck Steve. These jerks are putting together an "intelligent" AV program that hunts out virii across the net, reporting what it finds back to the central database for compilation and study. Supposedly, the program will be able to disinfect corrupted files with lightning speed. Have we not heard this before? White describes us: "The people who do this range from teenage computer nuts to adults with well-paid jobs. They are not clever, they are actually really bad programmers. (Fuck you to Steve) Lots of them think that they're contributing to research by writing viruses but I'd much rather they went and cooked a hamburger. They don't realize the damaga they can do. Well Steve, we are here to stay. We will try to make your life a living hell, you know you love it.