297 lines
14 KiB
Plaintext
297 lines
14 KiB
Plaintext
Metabolis is an Australian guy. He formed Vlad (Virus Labs and Distribution)
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some while ago. Vlad is ofcos a viruswriting group. This group (vlad) releases
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a magazine. Metabolis duty in Vlad, is pretty much alike my position in IR.
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He organize some things, keep the group releasing things, and code some
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stuff. Metabolis is also a very nice guy. If someone want to get a closer view
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who this guy is, read the vlad magazine's (two issue's relesed..), or get
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on IRC #virus, in where, he spend quite some time.
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TU = The Unforgiven
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MB = Metabolis
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TU> Gimme a short intruduction of you you are!
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MB> Well heh I'm 18, basically I sit at the computer most of my
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spare time, I don't do much coding.. just enough to keep Qark
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happy :) hehe. My job's more the promotional side of things,
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getting people to grab our magazine etc. Not much time for
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hobbies when I'm always trying to get on IRC as much as I can
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:) but hmm I go to the occasional rave party.. that's pretty
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cool. I don't work, at the moment I'm trying to finish a
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course at college. Not doing too well since I'm hardly there
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but hey, I'll get there :).
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TU> Any thoughts behind that handle, Metabolis?
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MB> The thing I really hate, is thinking up handles. I've had
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quite a few over the last few years and I was sort of running
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out of things to use. So I just opened my age old box of ZX
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Spectrum 48k computer games and saw one called Metabolis. End
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of story! :)
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TU> When did you discovered the world of computers, and why did
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you start with this expensive shitty hobby?
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MB> I've always liked being part of a group, there's a central
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goal and it gives you something to do, and if you're good at
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what you do.. there's a slight self satisfaction kick involved.
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So one time I figured it'd be cool to have a go at this virus
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business, I wasn't too serious since I could hardly code
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assembler at all, but heh I did it. Then one day someone told
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me I should talk to Qark cos he's into virus stuff too. I got
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hold of him and yep, he was pretty good. From there we set
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out to make the vlad magazine, we weren't really aiming at
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such a global scale as what we ended up with.
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TU> So.. why did you start creating viruses?
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MB> Hmm I wasn't too interested with the coding side of things
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originally, just the scene and organisation etc. I wrote the
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pascal one in vlad#1 because I dunno, I felt I had to
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contribute something and at the time I knew nothing about
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assembler. Then Qark came round and went through a parasitic
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.COM infector with me and hey presto, I get it now :) So I
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guess that was when I had the ability to. Prodigy 3.0 was an
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ok virus, not the best but I wasn't really aiming at it being
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a classic, more for other people as shit as me at it to learn
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from. That's one of the things we're all about.
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TU> Have you been involved in any other group that Vlad?
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MB> Let's just say I've tried many different things, and they
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always seemed to collapse in my face. VLAD has been good,
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there have been no problems, no abuse from anyone :). We
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actually have respect from some people which is good.
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TU> What's the groups goal?
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MB> Our goal really is to teach others how this virus shit is
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done.. to promote our country :). erm, I dunno that's about
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it really. We'll keep coding/writing until we have no more ideas
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I guess. Which should be quite a few more issues yet.
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TU> Why did you decided to release a magazine? I mean, you could as well
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release a package of viruses, etc. if it only was for the viruswriting
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itself..
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MB> Well that's just it you see, originally I couldn't really
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write much in the way of virus code. I just knew a fair
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amount of what went on in the scene etc. Most of my
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contributions to the magazine have been articles virus related
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but not code. So yeah, a magazine seemed right. We have
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things to say so we needed a medium through which we could
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portray this.
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TU> Are you planing to expand?
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MB> We did go on a member haul a while back but I think we're
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pretty much settled now with four. There are two others that
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might be joining soon but I think the ranks are full :). So,
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nah we're not really looking for anyone to join right now.
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Might do in the future.. we'll see.
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TU> Are you into other things in the underground computing, such as
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hacking, phreaking, etc? Or are you _solely_ a viruswriting group?
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MB> I guess you could say I'm into it, I've read quite a large
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amount of text files on various things, and have tried a bit
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of this and that, but nothing serious. I only bother when it
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serves a purpose. No need getting myself in trouble just for
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the fuck of it :).
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TU> How many viruses have you in person written?
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MB> Well I'll only count my assembler ones :) erm.. 5 I think,
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but they're very simple. Two of them I never bothered
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releasing (they were overwriting :). The other three, being
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Prodigy 3.0, Rod Fewster's Gonads (bwahahaha) and my
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contribution for the next magazine Overdrive.
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TU> Which one was the hardest to write?
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MB> Overdrive, my latest was the hardest. Doing the xor
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encryption I found a daunting task to begin with, it took me
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quite some time to get it to work :). It wasn't that
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difficult though, but I am at a basic stage still.
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TU> What do you think of the term non-destructive virus, or even a GOOD virus?
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MB> I think the term non-destructive virus applies to all of
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VLAD's creations! :) You won't find any formatting or random
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sector writes in our code. hmm I wrote an article on this
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very question I believe hehehe. In different people's eyes
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the word GOOD (when applied to a virus) can mean different
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things. Some see just the fact that a virus has appended to a
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file thus altering it's contents to be BAD. Whereas I would
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see this as good since it can most probably be removed if the
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need arises.
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TU> Do you have any sort of company or law-enforcement who are trying
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bust Vlad?
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MB> No, not that I know of. If there was I most probably
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wouldn't know, not having any "contacts" etc in any law
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enforcement agencies. We haven't done anything wrong so there
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isn't much reason for any law enforcement dudes to be
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interested in what we're doing.
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TU> What's your opinion about making viruswring illegal?
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MB> It would be like making any coding illegal, i.e. not
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possible! A more underground virus scene (than it already is)
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perhaps would be a good thing. It would kill a lot of the
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lamers that hang around :).
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TU> Do you spread your viruses in programs?
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MB> Well.. that's just it, if we started doing that we definately
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would have law enforcement agencies on our tail. No, we don't
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bother to release our viruses to the public through any sort
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of software (except our magazine of course :). If any
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infections occur overseas it's the readers, not us heh. A
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much safer situation to be in.
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TU> What's your opinion about newspaper, and computer-mags writing stuff
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about the virus scene?
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MB> So long as the shit isn't prejudiced or one of these
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virus=gun and virus author=murderer type article I have no
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problems with that. Unfortunately most of the time it is
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exactly the opposite of how I like it :(
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TU> What do you think they, can do to improve the quality of the material
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published?
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MB> First get an understanding of what they're crapping on about,
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it seems most just talk to the AV ppl, and leave the VX out of
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it totally. This sorta makes us look like bad guys and
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basically a bunch of assholes. Which is not the case :)
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TU> Why do you think most reporters often twist one's words around, cutting
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quotes and in nearly all possible way, without lying, making us look
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very bad?
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MB> It sucks, nothing else to say about it really. It's not just
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the fact that they lie and twist what you say. Like, say if
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they told you they wouldn't print your real name etc, they
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don't. They print your school/uni, your height, your looks
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etc etc. The press are mostly a bunch of wankers :)
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TU> Has the scene in any way influented on your real life?
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MB> I guess it has, I never used to bother about internet
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before. I was just a local modem type person. Now I try and
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spend as much time on there (in IRC) as I can! My phone bill
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has gone up so you're right about it costing me money hehe.
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TU> Does your parents, close relatives, know what you're doing behind
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the computer?
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MB> Yeah, my parents know what I do.
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TU> So.. what's their opinion about it?
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MB> They don't mind at all so long as I don't get our computers
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infected :). They're fairly computer literate.
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TU> Whould you feel guilty if one of your viruses made damage to a
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hospital, or if someone DIED bcos of your virus? For example,
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knocking down the the server to 911, or something like that?
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MB> Hmmm our viruses should just infect and sit there, I guess
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they might cause destruction somehow but it's pretty
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unlikely. If it did, then it would be because of lack of
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virus security at the hospital or the 911 server! No foreign
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disks etc blah blah, that sort of shit.. usually that will fix
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things up for them. Sure I'd feel guilty but I don't think my
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parasitic .COM infectors will do much :)
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TU> Do you like, or admire any virusprogrammer?
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MB> Sure there are plenty, anyone who has made a worthwhile
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contribution to the scene. I admire Talon being the best
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virus coder in Australia (well that's what I reckon!). hehe
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he'd really like to read this now I think.
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TU> What do you think it takes to become a respected virus writer?
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MB> To become respected, you have to try and do what no one else
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has done! I may not have come up with anything brilliant but
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I did think up a few heurstics dodging methods when I wrote
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Prodigy 3 (hehe check out face of death/80hex for it :)
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[* Hrm, only 80hex, which was more or less a trojan.. - TU *]
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Or if you can't think of anything new, just keep turning out as many
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(non ripped) viruses as you can! VCL/G2/PS-MPC/NRGL/IVP hacks
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get lower than zero respect from me.
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TU> What's your opinion about the anti-virus persons?
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MB> I find most to be self righteous and arrogant. They never
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listen to what virus authors have to say, they just keep
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maintaining that we're bad and they're good. Well, it's time
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to start thinking about who pays their wages :).
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TU> which anti-virus product do you prefer?
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MB> I like tbav for its heuristics, they are an endless supply of
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fun to think of how to code around them. I like f-prot for
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the lengthy virus names (great for scanning collections with
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:). Also AVP has some really good VSUM-like descriptions in
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it. They are the only ones I ever bother to execute.
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TU> Do you think there ever going to be a av-program able
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to guarantee 100% safety agains all viruses, worms and trojans
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for all future?
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MB> No, nothing can be 100% there will always be a way. I'm sure
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viruses will grow in size to get around these things but still
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they will always be around.
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TU> Do you know/heard of any new virus writing technique
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MB> I hear of a lot of things, various stealth things.. but never
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see any proof. Our flash bios infector was a new virus, not
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really in technique just the infection media (had to be said :).
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Bios and sector level stealth is what I hear about most, quite
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a few people reckon they've found new methods for this, but
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like I said, have yet to see anything.
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TU> Any advice to people who want's to learn the basic of virus-writing?
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MB> Sure, stick to it! After I learnt how the basics were done,
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I never bothered to keep on with it. I'm too lazy really
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hehe. Just read as many virus writing guides as you can, they
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never really helped me but they might someone. The best thing
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is for someone to actually sit down with ya and show you how
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it's done on the spot, I'd been trying to learn for ages and
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when Qark went through it with me, it was like an instant
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recognition of all the wrong shit I'd been doing.
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TU> Something else you wish to say, but never before have had the opportunity
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to say?
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MB> Not really, I tend to say what I want in our magazine :)
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although.. here's something I'd like to say in your magazine :)
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you can email any member of VLAD at these addresses
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meta@tempest.rhn.orst.edu
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qark@tempest.rhn.orst.edu
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darkman@tempest.rhn.orst.edu
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automag@tempest.rhn.orst.edu
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and if you don't have our magazines you can grab them at
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ftp: ftp.netcom.com /pub/bradleym/misc-zines
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or if you can IRC you can get them from VLADdist (my robot)
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They should be available on any decent VX BBSs anyway.
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TU> Any helloes or goto hell messages? :)
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MB> Ah, I know so many people these days.. hello to everyone I
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know, to those I don't try and get in touch with me :).
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Always happy to hear comments/suggestions from people. (no
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abuse mail please :). As to goto hell messages.. well, hmm I
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can think of a few, but I'll hold back I think .. don't need
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any wars starting now do we hehe.
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TU> Well, that's it Metabolis.. thanks for your time.
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(typing /exit.. :) )
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