113 lines
6.7 KiB
Plaintext
113 lines
6.7 KiB
Plaintext
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
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< The United Phreaker's Incorporated Proudly Presents >
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< Stoned Virus Enters Politics >
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< By: The Lost Avenger >
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< An Upi Production 1990 >
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<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
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Reprinted In File Form On March 8, 1990
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Orignally Publised In Toronto Computes March, 1990
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===============================================================================
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Stoned Virus Enters Politics
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Politicians on Parliament Hill are less than thrilled with the antics
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of a lobbyist who has infected at least 20 of their PCs and diskettes with a
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virus that sends the message "legalize marijuana."
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Although only a minimal amount of data was lost, Pierre Legault, chief
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of computer systems in the House of Commons, says the February 14 appearance of
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the virus saw his team devote two full days to scanning all 400 PCs and every
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one of the diskettes in the House.
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"We had to contact all the members and inform them that we would have
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to come into their offices to check out their computer equipment. It was not a
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lot of fun," says Legault.
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The virus makes its presence known by flashing the message "Your
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computer is stoned: legalize marijuana"--and then replicates itself until all
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available memory is used up. It is the same virus that has run rampant through
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Toronto universities in the last few months.
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Legault is not sure how the virus--the first ever to strike the House
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of Commons--infiltrated the system, but he says he is determined to find the
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culprit.
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"It could have been pretty bad, but we found it and quickly contained
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it," says Legault.
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===============================================================================
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Mac Virus Brings Grief To Vaccine Makers
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The appearance of a tough new breed of Macintosh virus has vaccine
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companies running scared.
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The WDEF virus saw Symantec lose thousands of dollars in one month and
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led 1st Aid Software of Boston to throw in the towel, and announce an end to
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further development of its Anti-Virus kit.
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In a letter to owners of the Anti-Virus kit, president Susan Monjan
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explained why her company would no longer go after "second-generation" Mac
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viruses.
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"Unfortunately, the introduction of stealth mechanisms (a virus which
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contains a mechanism to disable anti-viral utilities) moves virus protection
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into an entirely new arena. Attempting to deter mechanisms that are designed
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to situation....Attempting to block stealth mechanisms by software thwart
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detection is a no-win is comparable to the copy-protection wars of several
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years ago with the endless cycle of response/counter-response: a situation
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in which no one wins except the writers of anti-viral software."
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The WDEF virus, which was discovered in Belgium in December, is unlike
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other Macintosh viruses in that users do not have to run an application for the
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virus to spread. It simply travels at the insertion of a floppy, says Karim
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Esmail, a spokesperson for Symantec, the company which claims to have produced
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the first vaccine. This virus is also unique in that it only infects the
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invisible Desktop File, through which it copies itself from disk to disk.
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While the WDEF virus does not eat files, it can cause disk crashes,
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especially on Macintosh IIcx and IIci models when windows are moved, says
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Esmail.
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Esmail says the virus had the shipping department of Symantec in
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chaos. Only a week before locating a vaccine for WDEF, Symantec had announced
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version 1.2 of SAM, which eliminates the Mac virus Jude. Jude is a clone of
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the common nVIR B virus, and was discovered in Switzerland in late November.
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SAM version 1.2 was never shipped, however, because of the quick
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turn-around in developing 1.3, which detected both Jude and WDEF.
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By the end of the month 1.3 was outdated and version 1.4 was on the
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shelves, because a new strain of WDEF had been detected.
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Esmail said the effect of producing so many versions in so little time
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saw Symantec Corporation lose $30,000.
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What is worsening matters is that WDEF is travelling at breakneck
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speed. While Esmail could not say how many computers were infected, he
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acknowledged that it was more widespread than originally believed. First hit
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were universities in Illinois, Texas and California, and The Computer Paper has
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quoted another vaccine-maker as saying "virtually every (American) major
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university" has been struck.
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Mike Blumenthal of Club Mac in Toronto says he hasn't heard of any
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reports of WDEF infection in this city. "But that might just be because it's so
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embarrassing to admit that you've been sucked in."
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If hit, an alternative to buying a vaccine to rid yourself of the
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virus is to rebuild the Desktop file by holding down the Command and Option
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keys while booting or inserting a file.
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You may distrubute this file freely but may not change any part of this file in
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whole or part without the written or verbal concent of the author.
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===============================================================================
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Call These Great Upi Boards!
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===============================================================================
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Node Number Board Name Sysop Baud
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===============================================================================
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Hq 416-Upi-Home The Northern Phreaker's Alliance The Lost Avenger 24
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1 416-Upi-Nde1 The Shining Realm FrosT BitE 24
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2 514-Upi-Nde2 The Order Of Kamikaze Tomcat 96
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3 305-Upi-Nde3 Ferrari Mr. Ferrari 38.4
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4 416-Upi-Nde4 Time Zone Destoryer 38.4
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5 716-Upi-Nde5 The Knight's Society Jeff Knight 24
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6 408-Upi-Nde6 The Unholy Temple Black Death 24
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===============================================================================
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03-08-89/007 Copywrite 1990 By The Lost Avenger-All Rights Reserved
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Downloaded From P-80 International Information Systems 304-744-2253 12yrs+
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