VIRUS-L Digest Wednesday, 7 Dec 1988 Volume 1 : Issue 37 Today's Topics: Cost of the RTM WORM and new U.S. legislation more conference info RE: locking of a PC harddisk Low level format (PC) --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 07 Dec 88 08:58 CST From: Ken De Cruyenaere 204-474-8340 Subject: Cost of the RTM WORM and new U.S. legislation The Computer Security Institute newsletter (#84) quotes an estimate from USA TODAY saying that the cost of the incident exceeds $95 million. "This is based on 6200 computer affected, requiring 12 programmers at each site to spend 36 hours each (at $22 per hour) checking out every system that might have been affected, and adding in lost computer time (16 hours per system at $372 per hour). However, even if this figure substantially overstates the case, there is no doubt that the true costs were indeed in the millions of dollars." The newsletter also provides details of the new virus law (mentioned by Don Alvarez in Virus digest #22): "Congressman Wally Herger (R-California) has introduced H.R.5061, the 'Computer Virus Eradication Act of 1988' If passed, this bill would define the introduction or conscious dessemination of (i.e. knowingly passing along to someone else) computer viruses (or other harmful programs) that impact interstate or foreign commerce as a type of 'malicious mischief' prohibited under title 18 of the U.S. Code. Penalties range up to 10 years imprisonment and allow for recovery of damages via civil action. To obtain a copy of H.R.5061, contact your local Congressional representative." ------------------------------ From: gateh@conncoll.bitnet Date: Wed, 7 Dec 88 10:13:48 est Subject: more conference info It's a two (read one and a half) day seminar, Monday and Tuesday, January 30 and 31. Preventing and Containing Computer Virus Attacks Day 1: Introduction: Overview of the virus phenomenon Thomas Samson, partner, Heidrick & Struggles, Dallas, TX Designing Virus-Resistant Systems Patricia Sission, NASA, Greenbelt, MD Luncheon Talk: Legislative update Representative Wally Herger (R-CA) Successful security awareness programs Nicholas Elsberg, corp. sec. officer, Aetna Life & Casualty, Hartford, CT Conducting a risk assessment Jerrard Gartnet, senior mgr., national auditing services, EDP audit research, Price Waterhouse, Toronto Day 2: Overview of commercial anti-virus filters and vaccines Robert Jacobsen, IST Inc., New York, NY What to do if you have been attacked A special agent with the FBI, Washington, DC Liability issues of virus attacks Robert Baker, attorney, Weinberg & Green, Baltimore, MD Marr Haack, dir. of marketing, electronics and information technology, St. Paul Fire & Marine Insurance Co., St. Paul, MN John Landry, chairman, ADAPSO virus committee, executive VP for development, Cullinet Software, Westwood, MA Sponsored by nalyzer, IC Strategist, The National Report on Computers and Health, Back-Office Bulletin, 411, and Telecommunications Alert Hand-typed, so I take full responsibility for typos and erros - - Gregg _______________________________________________________________________________ _ Gregg TeHennepe | BITNET: gateh@conncoll Minicomputer Specialist | Phone: (203) 447-7681 Academic Computing and User Services Connecticut College New London, CT 06320 ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 7 Dec 88 08:47 MDT From: GORDON_A%CUBLDR@VAXF.COLORADO.EDU Subject: RE: locking of a PC harddisk To Y. Radai -- regarding locking out a PC harddisk: even though the partition table can be altered to fool DOS, a program, such as a virus, can initiate a low level format through the disk controller, such as implemeted through debug with g=c800:5. Allen Gordon ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 07 Dec 88 11:22:29 EDrd disks while leaving all data in place. It is put out by Gibson Research Corp (Box 6024, Irvine, CA 92716) and I think my copy was about $60. This is the Gibson that writes a column for Inforworld. Has anybody used this? I confess one of the reasons I haven't run is that it still seems tricky (although the doco is written so even I can understand it) to mess around with low level formatting. Any comments from users would be appreciated. Acknowledge-To: <3ZLUFUR@CMUVM> ------------------------------ End of VIRUS-L Digest ********************* Downloaded From P-80 International Information Systems 304-744-2253