50 lines
2.2 KiB
Plaintext
50 lines
2.2 KiB
Plaintext
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WATCH OUT FOR THEM CRACKERS!
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Used to be a Cracker was someone from the South. Nowdays, a Cracker is
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someone who haunts BBSs and loads in buggy programs which zap unsuspecting
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downloaders' operating systems.
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Times change.
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We have dealt with a few nasty Crackers and have developed a few very simple
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ways of handling them and the results of their 'Arf Arf' programs.
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* After your computer has blown up, take it back to Crazy Lou's Emporium and
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tell them it self-destructed. Those salesmen are merely rerouted car salesmen
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-- they'll never know. Just be sure you sent in your warranty information.
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* Feint Download. Download only to a capture buffer so you can scrutinize the
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program before sinking it into your three thousand dollars' worth of PC.
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* Start a Shooting War. Do your own buggy programs, even if all they do is
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show Brownian motion onscreen. Describe them in lofty, hi-tech terms so the
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Crackers themselves will want to try them out.
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* Embed sections of text from "You Guessed It" in any programs you download
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before testing them. The inane chatter will act like a roach bomb.
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* Before you download anything, ask around. Don't ask the obvious questions,
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just subtle ones like, "Is there a message at the end?"
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* Get back up on the BBS after having your computer fixed and tell all. That,
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of course, won't stop Crackers but it'll make you feel better.
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There's no question this new hobby among Crackers is just the beginning of a
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reign of compu-terror, but there's another side to the issue.
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A friend of mine is an accomplished programmer who does work for small
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clients. He always embeds necessary controls in his work so that, if the client
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fails to pap0iim on time, he can destroy the program with just a few quick taps
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on the keyboard.
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Major software vendors have taken less blatant steps to protect their
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proprietary rights, as you no doubt know.
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The question is, how do you thwart compu-terrorists but protect your own
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rights?
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One suggestion is to deflect them. Let's get compu-terrorists on our side!
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Anyone know a key phone number in, say, the Soviet Union, Libya or South
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Africa?
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