261 lines
12 KiB
Plaintext
261 lines
12 KiB
Plaintext
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
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Written and Supported By:
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The Cris Staff
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CRIS Policy / Procedure Statement
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CRIS is a virus information service that started after seeing all of the
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politics in the anti virus and virus exchange world. CRIS tries to stay
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out of the virus politics between the two sides and prefers to take some
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of the middle ground. We here will go into detail on CRIS, what it is
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about, rules, regulations, etc.
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Virus Research
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Cris has seen regular computer users that have little to no computer
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knowledge take an interest in viruses, what they can do, how they work
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etc. These people, because they do not use debug, have no programming
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knowledge, or know the latest virus terms and such, are shunned by the
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known AV researchers and AV people. Not in all cases, but for the most
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part, what we see is people with a true interest being shunned or told to
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go away.
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Do these people have a right to learn? There are no computer schools to
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teach these people what they want to learn. The av does not have the
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time to talk to them, much less help them with anything. This is where
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Cris comes in.
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AVvX - What it is
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Cris will teach anyone that wants to learn. Due to the fact that the AV
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community has no set standard for who they will admit, and who they will
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reject ( it seems to be a purely political thing... i.e. It's not what
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you know but who, and what you can do for them...), we have allot of
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respectable people going to the virus exchange bbs's to learn what they
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would like to know about viruses. On most of these vx boards they are
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exposed to illegal activities, such as "Carding", "Phreaking", and
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"Hacking". They are told that the `AV' are the enemy, and the `VX' are
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their friends.
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Well what it comes down to is that some of the AV and VX are both their
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"friends" and "enemies". This separation of AV and VX has been around
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long enough, when you look at it the AV are "VX"! The AV virus exchange
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amongst themselves, and the `VX' exchange amongst themselves. The only
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difference between the two is the "ethics argument". Now we have two
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groups in the VX world, one called AV and the other wrongly called VX,
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seeing how both sides virus exchange you can not really call the one VX
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as a title.
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Well it looks like the confusion is already there, both sides are doing
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virus exchange but each side is doing it amongst themselves. There
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should be a separation here though, one side will give viruses to people
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with the knowledge that they are going to take this file and do some
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damage to someone's machine. The other side attempts to insure that the
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virus will not be made available to anyone except other "accepted
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researchers" (define that as you will). So ethics comes in here, one
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side has a "Code of Ethics" (though it is often arbitrary in application
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of said "Code"), the other has no ethics. So in the virus exchange world
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there are currently two titles VX and AV, (one with "ethics", and one
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without).
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The problem here is that there are allot of VX people that do not fit
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into this AV `Click' but still have the "proper ethics". They have no
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intention of doing any damage or giving the files to people who do. They
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are VX, because they exchange viruses (just as the AV do), but they are
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people with "proper ethics", (AVvX) if you will.
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AV'ers = Someone that is against viruses doing damage to someone's
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machine, against anyone that would attempt to bring about
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this act, against anyone that would help aid a person in this
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act. Someone that will assist others in the prevention of
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this act (ie: AV software).
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AVvX'ers = All of the above + Will virus exchange with any interested
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person that is to be trusted (in their eyes), AV authors,
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programmers, researchers, collectors. But not clear cases of
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un-ethical people.
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VX'ers = None of the above. Their work is to undermine AV research and
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programming, they will assist people attempting to damage
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systems, no ethics apply here. Not all but many of these
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users are hackers/phreakers/carders, most of this group has
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no respect for the law and tend to have an `underground' way
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of thinking.
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Remember, Virus exchange is not against the law (YET), AV'ers and
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AVvX'ers do not want to see this happen, very few in the av group want
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to see this happen, most of them are taking a stand against it. (we'll
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know more on this after the upcoming hearings...) Only a select few are
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pushing for it. we see these as AV_CONFUSED!
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AV_Confused = Those individuals in the AV community who want to make it
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illegal to own and exchange viruses (or virus code),
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UNLESS you are an "approved researcher".
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The questions that remain unanswered are: Approved by who? What criteria
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would one have to meet? As long as viruses are clearly labeled as such,
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who has the right to tell anyone (in a democratic society) what kind of
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code they may, or may not, keep on their own personal computer? The only
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thing that will happen if viruses are made illegal is that the VX community
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will go deeper underground. The above are the reasons why we call the
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individuals that want to see viruses made illegal AV_CONFUSED, we fail to
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see the benefits of their plan. All we see is people wanting the Government
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to tell us what we may or may not possess on our personal computers. This
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sets a dangerous precedent.
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CRIS BBS Policies and Procedures:
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A lot of people have asked us to clearly define the policies and
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procedures used on the BBS, hopefully this article will
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accomplish this.
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Types of access:
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1. Regular Access
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Regular access is available to anyone who cares to log
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on, it includes access to everything except the virus file
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areas.
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2. Research Access
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Research access is available to those with an interest in
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"researching" computer viruses. The definition of research is
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left to the individual. To apply for research access one
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needs to fill out the research application in the cris/info file
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area and leave email. After your request is received you will
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receive email with a single virus attached to it. You are
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expected to research this virus to the best of your ability.
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Once you have done this, you should UL your results to the
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BBS. After reviewing your work you will receive research
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access. This type of access will allow you to DL up to 5
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files per day without requiring you to UL. You can maintain
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this type of access indefinitely, as long as you continue to
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UL your results in a timely manner (No less than once a
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month).
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Note: this access will go to 10 files after you become regular
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with your research.
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3. Virus Access
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The first thing you will need to do is fill out the virus
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access application in the cris/info area and upload it to the bbs.
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Virus access is available to those that are curious and want
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to learn more about computer viruses. To receive this type of
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access one needs to UL at least 50 known viruses to the Virus
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Access area. This initial UL is required because this shows
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us that you already have access to viruses, and probably came
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here to learn more about them. WE HAVE NO INTEREST IN
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DISTRIBUTING VIRUSES FOR ANY TYPE OF DESTRUCTIVE ACTIVITY, we
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only want to help people learn more about them, and overcome
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any irrational fears they may have of them. Once your UL is
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verified, this type of access will allow you to DL 5 viruses
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for every day.
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Seeing you do have access to viruses, we will expect you to help
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add to the base here. The five viruses on the daily basis will
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continue as long as we see a honest effort on your part of adding
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some sort of addition to the bbs, either uploading (viruses or av
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software), or posting messages. Before you UL any virus, please
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scan it with the latest copy of F-Protect. Note what F-prot calls
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the file and do a search with that as the search string. This will
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help keep you from sending up files we already have.
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Note: Your initial upload can be any known viruses, this is just
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to prove you already have access to viruses. It is our view
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that if you have access to virus files now, we can hardly do
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much harm allowing you access (seeing you have access to the
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like files anyway). But remember we need the virus access
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application from you and the upload before you will receive
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access.
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4. Virus Collections
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We encourage people to send up their virus collections. Each
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collection will be reviewed on a case by case basis, those
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that add to the BBS collection will receive more DL credit
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than those that do not. If you have any questions on this
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policy please leave email. Anyone that wants to DL a
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collection MUST obtain permission from the person that sent
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it up. Once the staff is positive that you have permission to
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DL the collection in question, and you have filled out the required
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application, and already have approved virus access, the collection
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will be made available to you.
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5. The Holding Area
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Due to the fact that we allow both virus writers and
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anti-virus software authors to access the BBS, there may be
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times when someone wants to send up a file but does not want
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it made available for DL right away. In this type of
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situation you may UL your file into the Holding Area. In the
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file description please include a date that it should be made
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available for DL. If you don't want to leave a public
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description of the file, please leave email telling us what
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it is. The file will remain in this area until the date
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specified ( no longer than 90 days from the date of
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UL). If you want the file to be accessible to certain users
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leave email and arrangements can be made.
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6. Virus Research
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What is virus research here on the Cris BBS? For those that
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want to learn more about computer viruses in more of a 'hands
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on' type of way, we offer our services in this way.
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Virus research falls into three categories. This is done so
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that all can get involved without feeling that their work
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would not be good enough.
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A. The Beginner
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A beginning researcher is one that has enough knowledge to
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unzip a virus and run some simple tests. These tests would
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be scanning the virus with different virus scanners, and
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writing down which scanners detected the virus and weather
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they were able to clean it. Also maybe they might look up
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some info on the virus in vsum or other dbase style programs
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and add in some quotes. They will also add a section of
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researchers notes.
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B. Intermediate
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The intermediate level researcher will do all that is above
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but he will add in things like source code, screen captures
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of the virus in action, he will disassemble the virus if he
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can not find source for it and include it in the researched
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virus upload. His researchers notes will be a little more
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indepth.
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C. Expert
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The expert researcher will do a Caro style research. This
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will include using debug, maybe different interrupt trapping
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utilities, this research will be allot more indepth then the
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normal research that someone wanting to learn more would
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be doing. This is more for those that have been into this
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for a while, or have a good programming background. There
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are examples of this research both in bulletins on the
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bbs, and in text files in the file areas.
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There will be three areas on the bbs for these files, we will add
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the files to where they belong as we see fit.
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We hope that this clears up any confusion anyone may have had
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about the types of access available on the BBS, and the criteria
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one must meet to receive them.
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