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.