VIRUS-L Digest Friday, 11 Nov 1988 Volume 1 : Issue 4 Today's Topics: what should be done with Morris et al. virus Opinion on Internet Worm ramifications Wozniak vs. Cohen Linguistic remark --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 10 Nov 88 19:03:55 EST From: "Homer W. Smith" Subject: what should be done with Morris et al. I believe a fair and approporate action that should be taken with Morris and others like him, (if proven guilty etc.) is some form of community service in the field of computer security. Having read about previous situations like this, I propose that a 'WAR GAMES' be set up on purpose at many insitutions with Good buys and Bad guys. The good guys try to write a secure system, the bad guys try to break it. After a while they change sides. Give them the run of the most advanced stuff on the planet, just not connected to anything real, and let them try to crash the hell out of it. The army plays games like this all the time with lasers instead of bullets. You know the most DANGEROUS thing about this whole thing is not that computer systems are inherently unstable, but that PEOPLE build them who can not refrain from the temptation to build in billions of backdoors. THAT is what is going to bring us down. And it is totally insane to think this does not affect the nuclear weapons side of things. People who say it doesn't know it does but want you to think it doesn't. Can't imagine why, their ass will be blown up with the rest of us. Homer W. Smith Hubbard Fractal Research Laboratory Cornell National Supercomputer Facility. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 10 Nov 88 19:19:40 EST From: "Homer W. Smith" Subject: virus I am sorry. I just had a silly thought. The only way out of this mess is get out of the business. Once the Russians and Americans realize that there is no saftey in computer controlled Nuclear Weapons they will disarm them faster than you can say, 'Well what do you know!' Homer ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 10 Nov 1988 20:49:43 EST From: Ken van Wyk Subject: Opinion on Internet Worm ramifications I hope that, if nothing else, the Internet Worm has opened the public's eyes (even more) to the dangers of viruses and worms. Robert Morris, Jr. (allegedly) wrote what was intended to be a simple experiment and it ended up costing thousands of dollars in manpower to stop. Of course, if he had meant to be malicious about it, he could have caused untold amounts of damage. This sounds sensationalistic (almost as if it should've been in the press...), but the fact is that it is true. RTM's intent wasn't to do damage; merely to satisfy intellectual curiousity by proving that it could be done. A person with his knowledge could've destroyed more work than anyone will ever know. Unfortunately, the realist (read: pessimist) in me says that the worm will not only open the public's eyes to the problem, but it will probably increase its paranoia. People will grow to distrust the networks and will be (at least) hesitant to share information and programs. If this case ends up decreasing the usefulness of the networks, or even abolishing them altogether, then this "harmless" worm will have done more damage than you and I can imagine. Everyone reading this knows how useful the networks are and how much of a disaster it would be if they were gone. William Murray told me of an interesting analogy in which some kids in New York city were setting off fire alarms in their boredom; it made lots of noise, and they got to see a show when the fire trucks came roaring down the street. Pretty soon the dispatchers starting not trusting the fire alarms until one day a large building (I can't remember which) burned to the ground after several alarms in the building were set off and subsequently ignored by the dispatcher. Of course, fire alarms are great and should be used, but if they're not to be trusted, then their utility is greatly diminished. It would certainly be a travesty if the networks were to share the same fate. Ken ------------------------------ Date: THU NOV 10, 1988 23.54.29 EST From: "David A. Bader" Subject: Wozniak vs. Cohen I think that the Stephen Wozniak / Fred Cohen debate on ABC tonight is a lot better than the presidential debates! :-) Anyway, what do we, the computer experts, feel about these ideas on viruses affecting other private systems (is it real, or just a media "hacking" good or bad? -David Bader DAB3@LEHIGH [Ed. Ack! I missed the debate (L.A. Law...)! Does anyone have it on video tape, and/or could someone please post a summary of what was discussed?] ------------------------------ Date: 10 November 88, 20:14:13 MEZ From: Otto Stolz +49 7531 88 2645 RZOTTO at DKNKURZ1 Subject: Linguistic remark Hi gang, recently a fellow (sorry, I can't be more specific as I've been too quick with my DISCARD command) complained on the pseudo-plural form "virii". Sure, "virii" isn't appropriate, as it doesn't comply with the rules of any language -- but "viri" isn't right, either! "Virus" stems from the Latin language (meaning "slime"). It is one of the very, very rare words of neutral gender ending in "-us" and following the so called O-declination: virus (nom.) viri (gen.) viro (dat.) virus (acc. -- specific to neutral gender) viro (abl.) Normally, the neutral words in this scheme end in "-um", and the plural in "-a", while masculine words end in "-us" and "-i". Also in other cases, the plural of neutral words tends to end on "-a". Now, is the correct plural form "viri" or "vira"?? In the book on Latin grammar available to me, the plural form of these neutral "-us" o-declination words isn't mentioned at all. After a while, I came to a conclusion: the only words of this kind I could find have no plural forms, at all! (There is no plural of "slime" either, is it? :-) Hence, if you need a plural for "virus", don't try to use a Latin (or pseudo-Latin :-) form -- "viruses" (English) or "Viren" (German) is definitely more appropriate. Btw: I prefer "virus strains". I hope I haven't annoyed you, and I definitely don't want to raise this to a regular VIRUS-L topic. Best regards to everybody who read up to this point Otto ------------------------------ End of VIRUS-L Digest ********************* Downloaded From P-80 International Information Systems 304-744-2253