325 lines
17 KiB
Plaintext
325 lines
17 KiB
Plaintext
|
|
|
|
|
|
#######################################
|
|
# #
|
|
# #
|
|
# ======== =\ = ====== #
|
|
# == = \ = = #
|
|
# == = \ = ====== #
|
|
# == = \ = = #
|
|
# == = \= ====== #
|
|
# #
|
|
# #
|
|
# <Tolmes News Service> #
|
|
# ''''''''''''''''''''' #
|
|
# #
|
|
# #
|
|
# > Written by Dr. Hugo P. Tolmes < #
|
|
# #
|
|
# #
|
|
#######################################
|
|
|
|
|
|
Issue Number: 31
|
|
Release Date: March 12, 1988
|
|
|
|
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
|
|
|
|
This entire issue will concern itself with one article. The article comes out
|
|
of the New York Times. Section #3. Pages 1 and 8. The date of the article is
|
|
January 31, 1988.... the main topic of the article: computer viruses.
|
|
|
|
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
|
|
|
|
|
|
* Computer Systems Under Siege *
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
'Virus' programs that can elude most barriers have begun to infect computers
|
|
around the world.
|
|
|
|
by Vin McLellan
|
|
|
|
|
|
BOSTON
|
|
|
|
|
|
It could be a science-fiction nightmare come to life. In the last nine months,
|
|
computer viruses- which could subvert, alter or destroy programs of banks,
|
|
corporations, the military and the Government- have infected personal
|
|
computer programs at several corporations and universities in the
|
|
United States as well as in Israel, West Germany, Switzerland, Britain and
|
|
Italy.
|
|
Security experts say they fear terrorists, hackers or even practical
|
|
jokers could invent viruses that would wreak havoc in the computer world- and
|
|
in the business and military operations that have become so dependant on it.
|
|
"The dangers of viruses and some of these other computer attacks are
|
|
just unbelievable," said Donald Latham, executive vice president of the
|
|
Computer Sciences Corporation and former Assistant Secretary of Defense
|
|
who ran a Reagan Administration program to increase security in civilian
|
|
and Government computer systems. "The threat is more serious than most people
|
|
think; no one can say enought about it."
|
|
Like its biological counterpart, a computer virus can be highly
|
|
contagious. It has the capability of instantaneously cloning a copy of
|
|
itself and then burying those copies inside other programs. All infected
|
|
programs then become contagious and the viruse passes to other computers that
|
|
the software comes into contact with. Virus infections also can be
|
|
transmitted between computers over telephone lines. A single strategically
|
|
placed computer with an infected memory- say a personal computer
|
|
bulletin board - can rapidly infect thousands of small computer systems.
|
|
The most virulent outbreaks so far have occurred in personal computers.
|
|
But security experts say the greatest risk would come from infected large
|
|
computers, such as those governing the air traffic controllers' system or the
|
|
Internal Revenue Service.
|
|
"The basic rule is, where information can go, a virus can go with,"
|
|
said Fred Cohen, a University of Cincinnati professor who has been doing
|
|
research oruses since 1983.
|
|
According to Dr. Cohen, research that he did in 1983 and 1984 has shown
|
|
that most mainframe computers can successfully be subverted within an
|
|
hour. And networks- even a huge international network with thousands of
|
|
computers spread over continents- can be opened up to an illicit intruder
|
|
within days, he said. The possibility of computer networks becoming a primary
|
|
medium for subverion and warfare- the "softwar" depicted in a dozen classic
|
|
science-fiction thrillers- "has become much more real," Dr. Cohen said.
|
|
What further complicates the problem is the fact that the virus can
|
|
evade the normal controls and barriers that all computers, even those at
|
|
secure military installations, use to control who has access to information
|
|
availiable through the computers.
|
|
"A viruse is deadly because it can jump- actually slide right through -
|
|
the barriers everyone uses to control access to valuable information," said
|
|
Kenneth Weiss, technical director at Security Dynamics Technology Inc., a
|
|
computer security company in Cambridge, Mass., and chairman of the computer
|
|
security division of the American Defense Preparedness Association. "The
|
|
solution is to put a wall with good solid gates around the jungle- most
|
|
computers still have the equivalent of a sleepy guard at the door. But the
|
|
larger problem is how to secure the system against people who have
|
|
legitimate work inside."
|
|
One of the early warnings about the threat of computer viruses was
|
|
raised in a paper given by Dr. Cohen at a computer conference in Toronto in
|
|
September, 1984. It drew wider public attention in March 1985, when
|
|
Scientific American magazine published a letter from two Italien programers in
|
|
the Computer Recreations column that gave a virtual blueprint for virus that
|
|
could attack small personal computers.
|
|
Only in the last nine months, however, have actual reports surfaced
|
|
concerning virus infections, including infections striking poersonal computer
|
|
programs used by I.B.M. employess on the East Coast, and others at
|
|
Hewlett-Packard, Apple Computer and several small companies in the San
|
|
Francisco area, according to security consultants.
|
|
|
|
|
|
College administrators report widespread virus infection in personal
|
|
computers used by students and faculty at the University of Delaware and
|
|
Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pa. Other reports of infections have come
|
|
from the University of Pittsburge, the University of Maryland and George
|
|
Washington University. Personal computer userr groups have also reported
|
|
infections in Florida, Colorado, new Jersey and New York.
|
|
"It's apparently going to be the game this year to see who can come up
|
|
with the deadliest virus," said Dennis Steinaur, a senior security specialist
|
|
at the National Bureau of Standards, which promotes computer security in
|
|
npn-military Federal agencies and the private sector. "We're all very
|
|
vulnerable."
|
|
Yet he said that the bureau planned no immediate recommendation on
|
|
the virus threat. "With limiteed resources," he said,"we like to put our
|
|
priorities in areas wheresolution.
|
|
Other reports of viruses are coming in from other areas. Security experts
|
|
aat SRI International in Palo Alto, Calif. recently said they had learned
|
|
of a mainframe computer in San Francisco area being subverted by a virus.
|
|
Computer & Security, the journal of the security group IFIPS, a leading
|
|
international association of computer professionals, last winter reported
|
|
several major incidents of virus attacks on big mainframe systems "in
|
|
Wesstern Europe." Rumors regarding an alleged virus attack on two IRS Univac
|
|
computers in Philadelphia two weeks ago have been vehemently denied by IRS
|
|
officials. The system was taken offline they said, strictly for maintaneance.
|
|
Viruses now circulating in the Unitesd States were designed to
|
|
eventually destroy data in IBM and compatible personal computers, the
|
|
Appple Macintosh and Commodore Technology's Amiga, according to a
|
|
company officials and employees. In almost all o the reported cases, the
|
|
virus codes were overtly malicious.
|
|
One of the most troubling reports has come from Israel where an
|
|
infectioous virus code was spread widely over a two-month period last fall
|
|
and was apparently intended as a weapon of political protest. The code
|
|
contained a "timebomb" that on Friday, May 13, 1988, would have caused
|
|
infected programs to berase all stored files, according to Yuval Rakavy, a
|
|
student at Hebrew University, who first discovered, then dismantled the virus
|
|
code.
|
|
|
|
|
|
May 13 will be the 40th anniversary of the last day Palestine existed
|
|
as a political entity. Israel declared itself independant on May 14, 1948.
|
|
Mr. Rakavy said there had been rumors, that a virus was cirucalting in
|
|
Israel vefore he was asked on Dec. 30 to help a friend understand why his
|
|
personal computer was not working properly. When I got to see it," he
|
|
said, "I knew immediately what it was, I've known about viruses for several
|
|
years.," he added, referring to the Scientific American letter.
|
|
While it awaited its May 13 trigger date, said Mr. Rakavy, the Israeli
|
|
virus was already instructing the computer to slow to one-fifth its normal
|
|
speed some 30 minutes after it was turned on, and from "time to time put
|
|
garbage on the screen."
|
|
Yet it was not the irritation with the speed or screen problems that
|
|
finally called attention to the infected code, said Shmuel Peleg, a
|
|
professor of computer science at Hebrew University. The "code bomb" was only
|
|
discovered because of an error in the virus program caused it to mistake
|
|
previously infected programs as uninfected. Then, in error, it would
|
|
add another copy of itself to the program. "Supposedly unmodified programs were growing," floding disk
|
|
memories, he said. "We had programs which had been infected 300,400 times."
|
|
A spokkesman for Hebrew University, Yisrael Radai, called the
|
|
infection "the most devastating thing we have come across." He said ,"
|
|
thousands of computer files were at risk."
|
|
Israeli officials suggested a"Friday the 13th" coincidence, but Mr.
|
|
Rakavy said the virus was codcded to ignore Nov. 13, 1987. At the timeion, the Israeli press quoted many Israeli computer executives who
|
|
spoke of panic among cutomers and peers. That concern is still being
|
|
voiced, although the Israelis have widely cirulated an immunity program to kill
|
|
the virus.
|
|
Richard Schwartz, a visce president of ANSA Borland International Inc.,
|
|
a software company in Belmont, Calif. said he was visiting Israel at the end
|
|
f the year and was given software samples by an Israeli programmer. Days
|
|
later, he said the programmer called, warning that the program contained the
|
|
Isreali virus. "We were going to play wih the virus here," said Mr.
|
|
Schwartz,"just to see how it worked. But I finally decided I didn't want to
|
|
take any risk."
|
|
"The viruse discovered at Lehigh University was typical of others that
|
|
have surfaced in the United States. It attached itself to a few lines of the
|
|
operating system used on the IBM PC'S that the college provides for
|
|
studentuse . It then counted the number of new magnetic memories- hard or
|
|
floppy disks- that it infected. When the count reached four, it immediately
|
|
erased all programs and data it could reach. "IT was pretty juvenile coding,"
|
|
said Kenneth van yk, a Lehigh administrator, "but students may have
|
|
lost a lot of work."
|
|
Another university-rbased virus raised more questions. Buried within
|
|
the code of the virus discovered at the University of Delaware was an apparent
|
|
ransom demand: "Computer users who disvcovered the virus were to send
|
|
$2,000 to an address in Pakistan to obtain an immunity program, according
|
|
to Harol Highland, an Elmont, N.Y. consultant who studies viruses. The
|
|
Pakistani contact was not identified.
|
|
"It's like a fantasy of being a terrorist without the blood," said Eric
|
|
Corley, editor of a national hacker newsletter, 2600, whose electionic
|
|
bulletin board was infected.
|
|
On a more theoretical level, viruses could bprovide weapons in
|
|
corporate infighting and ould affect production. "The classic scenario is a
|
|
vice president using a virus to taint the programs and tools the company the
|
|
company uses to paln and make projects, making the president look bad and
|
|
hoping that the'll replace him," Dr. Cohen said. "The same potentioal exists
|
|
among fighting among competing exeecutivess or competing comapnies. One
|
|
company could infect the process controller a competitor uses to govern
|
|
steel production- with the result that the steel would be of an inferior
|
|
grade. That sort of subtle sabotage could be very very difficult to
|
|
recognize."
|
|
Concern about viruses has spread well beyond the computer industry.
|
|
Officials at several affected colleges said they had been contacted by a
|
|
representitive from the National Security Agengency, the Pentagon agency
|
|
responsible for the security of classified Government computer systems and
|
|
electronic spying abroad, and asked for details about virus codes. Since 1985,
|
|
the N.S.A. and various military groups have spoken wi in several classified
|
|
conferences about the risk of virus attacks at Government computer
|
|
installations.
|
|
The first, at the National Bureau of Standards in Janua"pretty much of an 'ain't it awful' affaid," recalled Andrew Goldstein, a
|
|
senior consulting engineer at the Digital Equipment Corporation. "Then-
|
|
and still - I'M afraid, no one really knows what to do about viruses. None of
|
|
the existing mechanisms for security deal with them very well."
|
|
William H Murray, a security consultant at Ernst & Whinney and former
|
|
IBM spokesman on security issues, said efforst to contain viral infections
|
|
were hampered by "all the things you have to do in the face of a viral
|
|
attack.," such restricting the exchange and sharing of information. Those
|
|
things, he said, "are almost as disruptive as the attack."
|
|
Although he conceded that "there are no general defenses against the
|
|
virus attack," he stressed that this doesn't the worst will happen ." For
|
|
most people- even most businessmen - the world is a fairly benign place," he
|
|
said. "Most of us want the world to work, or the temptation to bring it
|
|
down is not so great that most people don't resist it."
|
|
He stressed that although "the virus vulnerability results from our
|
|
desire to share data and programs, vulnerabilities do not necessarily
|
|
equate to problems. We've got all sorts of vulnerabilityies in our socieity
|
|
that no one is exploiting."
|
|
One reason viruses can thrive is that industry has widely adopted
|
|
networks between compters to foster profitability , cooperation, and
|
|
information sharing, despite the fact that these links have generally
|
|
weakened security at each computer's point. Efforst to foster productivity
|
|
also led to widespread adoption of personal computers, byt that has
|
|
depended in large part on free distribution of thousands of public
|
|
doman programs.
|
|
There is a growing awareness of the virus threat among computer
|
|
professionals, in part because publicity about an automatic chain
|
|
letter that flooded a major IBM computer network late last year.
|
|
Written by a West German student, the device looked like a computerized
|
|
Christmas card. But when it was run, it secretly reached into computer files
|
|
and sent copies to everyone who had exchanged messages with the person
|
|
running it.
|
|
|
|
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
|
|
|
|
NOTA:
|
|
|
|
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
|
|
|
|
"Security experts say they fear terrorists, hackers or even practical
|
|
jokers could invent viruses that would wreak havoc in the computer world- and
|
|
in the business and military operations that have become so dependant on it."
|
|
|
|
|
|
Ohh... The fear of hackers is there as is the case with all viruses.
|
|
|
|
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
|
|
|
|
"The most virulent outbreaks so far have occurred in personal computers."
|
|
|
|
|
|
This is of course due to the trading of software and the downloading of public
|
|
domain software from bulletin boards.
|
|
|
|
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
|
|
|
|
"What further complicates the problem is the fact that the virus can
|
|
evade the normal controls and barriers that all n those at
|
|
secure military installations, use to control who has access to information
|
|
availiable through the computers."
|
|
|
|
|
|
Not really. The downloading of software and uploading of it can be controlled.
|
|
And anti-virus programs can be implemented.
|
|
|
|
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
|
|
|
|
"College administrators report widespread virus infection in personal
|
|
computers used by students and faculty at the University of Delaware and
|
|
Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pa."
|
|
|
|
|
|
These reports have been covered in previous issues and will be covered in
|
|
future issues of TNS.
|
|
|
|
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
|
|
|
|
"'It's like a fantasy of being a terrorist without the blood,' said Eric
|
|
Corley, editor of a national hacker newsletter, 2600, whose electionic
|
|
bulletin board was infected."
|
|
|
|
|
|
2600 Magazine is the "Journal of the American Hacker." This magazine has been
|
|
covered in detail in previous issues of TNS. The viral infection on 2600's
|
|
bulletin board is unknown to me.
|
|
|
|
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
|
|
|
|
"Other reports of viruses are coming in from other areas. Security
|
|
experts at SRI International in Palo Alto, Calif. recently said they had
|
|
learned of a mainframe computer in San Francisco area being subverted by a
|
|
virus."
|
|
|
|
|
|
Although SRI International was mentioned.. this article lacks a quote from
|
|
Donn Parker. Donn Parker is the main spokesman for SRI International and it
|
|
seems that whenever SRI is mentioned, Donn gets a quote... but not this time.
|
|
|
|
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
|
|
|
|
.... well.. that's all for this issue of TNS. Later.
|
|
|
|
|
|
<Hugo>.
|
|
|
|
|
|
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
|
|
|