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