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Thread: The Bulgarian and Soviet Virus Factories

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    The Bulgarian and Soviet Virus Factories

    The Bulgarian and Soviet Virus Factories
    ========================================

    Vesselin Bontchev, Director
    Laboratory of Computer Virology
    Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Sofia, Bulgaria


    0) Abstract
    ===========

    It is now well known that Bulgaria is leader in computer virus
    production and the USSR is following closely. This paper tries to
    answer the main questions: Who makes viruses there, What viruses are
    made, and Why this is done. It also underlines the impact of this
    process on the West, as well as on the national software industry.

    1) How the story began
    ======================

    Just three years ago there were no computer viruses in Bulgaria.
    After all, these were things that can happen only in the capitalist
    countries. They were first mentioned in the April issue of the
    Bulgarian computer magazine "Komputar za vas" ("Computer for you")
    [KV88] in a paper, translated from the German magazine "Chip" [Chip].
    Soon after that, the same Bulgarian magazine published an article
    [KV89]], explaining why computer viruses cannot be dangerous. The
    arguments presented were, in general, correct, but the author had
    completely missed the fact that the majority of PC users are not
    experienced programmers.

    A few months later, in the fall of the same year, two men came in the
    editor's office of the magazine and claimed that they have found a
    computer virus. Careful examination showed that it was the VIENNA
    virus.

    At that time the computer virus was a completely new idea for us. To
    make a computer program, whose performance resembles a live being, is
    able to replicate and to move from computer to computer even against
    the will of the user, seemed extremely exciting.

    The fact that "it can be done" and that even "it had been done"
    spread in our country like wildfire. Soon hackers obtained a copy of
    the virus and began to hack it. It was noticed that the program
    contains no "black magic" and that it was even quite sloppily
    written. Soon new, home--made and improved versions appeared. Some of
    them were produced just by assembling the disassembly of the virus
    using a better optimizing assembler. Some were optimized by hand. As
    a result, now there are several versions of this virus, that were
    created in Bulgaria --- versions with infective lengths of 627, 623,
    622, 435, 367, 353 and even 348 bytes. The virus has been made almost
    two times shorter (its original infective length is 648 bytes)
    without any loss of functionality.

    This virus was the first case. Soon after that, we were "visited" by
    the CASCADE and the PING PONG viruses. The later was the first
    boot--sector virus and proved that this special area, present on
    every diskette can be used as a virus carrier, too. All these three
    viruses were probably imported with illegal copies of pirated
    programs.

    2) Who, What & Why.
    ===================

    2.1) The first Bulgarian virus.
    -------------------------------

    At that time both known viruses that infected files ( VIENNA and
    CASCADE) infected only COM files. This made me believe that the
    infection of EXE files was much more difficult. Unfortunately, I made
    the mistake by telling my opinion to a friend of mine. Let's call him
    "V.B." for privacy reasons.(1)
    ...................................................................
    [(1) These are the initials of his true name. It
    will be the same with the other virus writers that I shall mention.
    Please note, that while I have the same initials (and even his full
    name resembles mine), we are two different persons.]
    ...................................................................
    The challenge was taken immediately and soon after that I received a
    simple virus that was able to infect only EXE files. It is now known
    to the world under the name of OLD YANKEE. The reason for this is
    that when the virus infects a new file, it plays the "Yankee Doodle"
    melody.

    The virus itself was quite trivial. Its only feature was its ability
    to infect EXE files. The author of this virus even distributed its
    source code (or, more exactly, the source code of the program that
    releases it). Nevertheless, the virus did not spread very widely and
    even had not been modified a lot. Only a few sites reported to be
    infected by it. Probably the reason for this was the fact, that the
    virus was non--resident and that it infected files only on the
    current drive. So the only possibility to get infected by it was to
    copy an infected file from one computer to another.

    When the puzzle of creating a virus which is able to infect EXE files
    was solved, V.B. lost his interest in this field and didn't write any
    other viruses. As far as I know, he currently works in real--time
    signal processing.

    2.2) The T.P. case.
    -------------------

    The second Bulgarian virus--writer, T.P., caused much more trouble.
    When he first heard the idea about aself--replicating program, he was
    very interested, decided to writehis own virus, and he succeeded.
    Then he tried to implement a virus protection scheme and succeeded
    again. The next move was to improve his virus to bypass his own virus
    protection, then to improve the virus protection and so on. That is
    why there are currently about 50 different versions of his viruses.

    Unfortunately, several of them (about a dozen) were quite
    "successful." They spread world--wide. There are reports about them
    from all countries of the former Eastern block, as well as from the
    USA and West Europe.

    Earlier versions of these TP viruses are known under the name
    VACSINA, because they contain such a string. In fact, this is the
    name of the virus author's virus protection program. It is
    implemented as a device driver with this name. The virus merely tries
    to open a file with this name, which means "Hey, it's me, let me
    pass."

    The latest versions of the virus are best known under the name YANKEE
    DOODLE, because they play this tune. The conditions on which the tune
    is played are different with the different versions of the virus ---
    for instance when the user tries to reboot the system, or when the
    system timer reaches 5 p.m.

    All TP viruses are strictly non--destructive. Their author payed
    particular attention not to destroy any data. For instance, the virus
    does not infect EXE files for which the true file length and the
    length of the loadable part as it is present in the EXE header, are
    not equal. As far as I know, no other virus that is able to infect
    EXE files works this way.

    Also, the virus does not try to bypass the resident programs that
    have intercepted INT 13h, therefore it takes the risk to be detected
    by most virus activities monitoring software. The author of the virus
    obviously could circumvent it --- for instance it uses a clever
    technique, now known as "interrupt tracing" to bypass all programs
    that have hooked INT 21h. The only reason for not bypassing INT 13h
    as well, is that this would also bypass all disk casheing programs,
    thus it could cause damage.

    Of course, the fact that the virus is not intentionally destructive
    does not mean that it does not cause any damage. There are several
    reports of incompatibilities with other software; or of panicking
    users, that have formatted their disks; or, at least, damage caused
    by time loss, denial of computer services, or expenses removing the
    virus. It is well known, that "there ain't no such thing as a good
    virus."

    The TP viruses were not spread intentionally; the cause could be
    called "criminal negligence." The computer used by T.P. to develope
    his viruses was also shared by several other people. This is common
    practice in Bulgaria, where not everyone can have a really "personal"
    computer to work with. T.P. warned the other users that he is writing
    viruses, but at this time computer viruses were a completely new
    idea, so nobody took the warning seriously. Since T.P. didn't bother
    to clean up after himself, these users got, of course, infected.
    Unintentionally, they spread the infection further.

    When asked about the reason of writing viruses, T.P. replied that he
    did this in order to try several new ideas; to better learn the
    operating system and several programming tricks. He is not interested
    in this field any more --- he has stopped writing viruses about two
    years ago.

    2.3) The Dark Avenger.
    ----------------------

    In the spring of 1989 a new virus appeared in Bulgaria. It was
    obviously "home--made" and just to remove any doubts about it, there
    was a string in it, saying "This program was written in the city of
    Sofia (C) 1988-89 Dark Avenger."

    The virus was incredibly infectious --- when it was in memory, it was
    sufficient to copy or just to open a file to get it infected. When
    the user felt that there is a virus in his/her system and, without
    booting from a non--infected write--protected system diskette, ran an
    anti--virus program which wasn't aware of this new virus, he usually
    got all his/her executable files infected.

    The idea of infecting a file when it is opened was new and really
    "successful." Now such viruses are called "fast infectors." This
    strategy helped the virus to spread world-- wide. There are reports
    from all European countries, from the USA, the USSR, even from
    Thailand and Mongolia.

    On the top of this, the virus was very dangerously destructive. On
    each 16th run of an infected program, it overwrote a sector on a
    random place of the disk, thus possibly destroying the file or
    directory that contained this sector. The contents of the overwritten
    sector was the first 512 bytes of the virus body, so even after the
    system has been cleaned up, there were files, containing a string
    "Eddie lives...somewhere in time!" This was causing much more damage
    than if the virus was just formatting the hard disk, since the
    destruction was very unnoticable and when the user eventually
    discovered it, his backups probably already contained corrupted data.

    Soon after that, other clever viruses began to appear. Almost all of
    them were very destructive. Several contained completely new ideas.
    Now this person (we still cannot identify him exactly) is believed to
    be the author of the following viruses:

    DARK AVENGER, V2000 (two variants), V2100 (two variants), 651,
    DIAMOND (two variants), NOMENKLATURA, 512 (six variants), 800, 1226,
    PROUD, EVIL, PHOENIX, ANTHRAX, LEECH...


    Dark Avenger has several times attacked some anti--virus researchers
    personally. The V2000/V2100 viruses claim to be written by "Vesselin
    Bontchev" and in fact hang the computer when any program, containing
    this string is run. A slightly modified variant of V2100 (V2100-B)
    has been used to trojanize version 66 of John McAfee's package
    VIRUSCAN.

    There are reports that Dark Avenger has called several bulletin board
    systems in Europe and has uploaded there viruses. The reports come
    from the UK, Sweden, the Netherlands, Greece... Sometimes the viruses
    uploaded there are unknown in Bulgaria (NOMENKLATURA,ANTHRAX). But
    they are obviously made in our country --- they contain messages in
    Cyrillic. Sometimes Dark Avenger uploads a Trojan program that
    spreads the virus --- not just an infected program. This makes the
    detection of the source of infection more difficult.

    One particular case is when he has uploaded a file called UScan,
    which, when run, claims to be the "universal virus scanner," written
    by Vesselin Bontchev. Even the person who has uploaded it, has logged
    under the name "Vesselin Bontchev." In fact, the program just
    infected all scanned files with the ANTHRAX virus.

    While the other Bulgarian virus writers seem to be just irresponsible
    or with childish mentality, the Dark Avenger can be classified as a
    "technopath." He is a regular user of several Bulgarian bulletin
    board systems, so one can easily exchange e-mail messages with him.
    When asked why his viruses are destructive, he replied that
    "destroying data is a pleasure" and that he "just loves to destroy
    other people's work."

    Unfortunately, no measures can be taken against him in Bulgaria.
    Since there is no law for information protection, his activities are
    not illegal there. He can be easily caught by tapping the phones of
    the BBSes that he uses, but the law enforcement authorities cannot
    take such measures, since there is no evidence of illegal activities.
    Alas, he knows this perfectly.

    2.4) Lubo & Ian.
    ----------------

    Some of the Dark Avenger's viruses proved to be very "successful" and
    caused real epidemics. That is why they were often imitated by other
    virus writers, that had no imagination to design their own virus, but
    were jealous of Dark Avenger's fame. So they just disassembled his
    viruses (usually the first one) and used parts of it --- sometimes
    without even understanding their purpose. Such is the case with the
    MURPHY viruses.

    According to a string in them, they are written by "Lubo & Ian, USM
    Laboratory, Sofia." These people do exist and they have used their
    real names. "Lubo" has even been several times interviewed by
    newspaper's reporters.

    They claim that the virus was written for vengeance. They have done
    some important work for their boss and the latter refused to pay
    them. That is why they developed te virus in one night and released
    it. The fact that the virus will spread outside the laboratory just
    didn't come to their minds. However, this does not explain the
    developing of the other versions of the same virus (there are at
    least four variants). Nevertheless, it proves one more time that it
    is better (and safer, too) to pay the good programmers well...

    Besides MURPHY, these two virus writers have created another virus,
    called SENTINEL (5 variants). The only unusual thing with this virus
    is that it is written in a high--level programming language (Turbo
    PASCAL), but is not an overwriting or a companion virus as most HLL
    viruses are. It is able to infect COM and EXE files by appending
    itself to them and by preserving their full functionality. It is also
    memory resident, hides the file length increase when the user issues
    the DIR command, and even mutates.

    2.5) The virus writer from Plovdiv.
    -----------------------------------

    This man, P.D., claimed that he has written viruses "for fun" and
    only "for himself" and that he "never releases them." Unfortunately,
    at least two of them have "escaped" by accident. These are the ANTI-
    PASCAL605 and the TERROR viruses. Especially the latter is extremely
    virulent and caused a large epidemic in Bulgaria.

    P.D. was very sorry for that and submitted examples of all his
    viruses to the anti--virus researchers so that the respective
    anti--virus programs be developed --- just in case some of these
    viruses escapes too. These viruses turned out to be quite a few,
    ranging from extremely stupid to very sophisticated. Here are some of
    them:

    XBOOT, ANTIPASCAL (5 variants), TINY (11 variants), MINIMAL-45,
    TERROR, DARK LORD, NINA, GERGANA, HAPPY NEW YEAR (2 variants), INT
    13.

    P.D. claims that the DARK LORD virus (a minor TERROR variant) is not
    written by him. The TINY family has nothing to do with the Danish
    TINY virus (the 163--byte variant of the KENNEDY virus), and, as well
    as the MINIMAL-45 virus, are written with the only purpose to make
    the shortest virus in the world.

    Now P.D. is not writing viruses any more --- because "it is so easy,
    that it is not interesting," according to his own words. He is
    currently writing anti--virus programs --- and rather good ones.

    2.6) The two guys from Varna.
    -----------------------------

    They are two pupils (V.P. and S.K.) from the Mathematical High School
    in Varna (a town on the Black Sea). They have developed several
    viruses and continue to do so, producing more and more sophisticated
    ones. Furthermore, they intentionally spread their viruses, usually
    releasing them on the school's computers or in the Technical
    University in Varna. When asked why they write and release viruses,
    they reply "because it's so interesting!"

    The viruses written by them are: MG (5 variants), SHAKE (5 variants),
    DIR and DIR II. All of them are memory resident and infect files when
    the DIR command is performed.

    The last one is an extremely virulent and sophisticated virus --- as
    sophisticated, as THE NUMBER OF THE BEAST. It is also a completely
    new type of virus --- it infects nether boot sectors, nor files.
    Instead, it infects the file system as a whole, changing the
    information in the directory entries, so that each file seems to
    begin with the virus.

    There is a counter of the number of infected systems in the virus
    body. There is evidence that V.P. and S.K. collect infected files,
    copy the contents of the counter and then draw curves of the spread
    of infection, checking the normal distribution law. They are doing
    this "for fun."

    2.7) W.T.'s case.
    -----------------

    W.T. is a virus writer from Sofia, who has written two viruses ---
    WWT (2 variants) and DARTH VADER (4 variants). According to his own
    words, he has done so to test a new idea and to gain access to the
    Virus eXchange BBS (see below).

    The new idea consisted of a virus (DARTH VADER) that does not
    increase file lengths, because it searches for unused holes, filled
    with zeros, and writes itself there. Also, the virus does not perform
    any write operations. Instead, it just waits for a COM file to be
    written to by DOS and modifies the file's image in memory just before
    the write operation is performed.

    W.T. does not write viruses any more, but he is still extremely
    interested in this field. He is collecting sophisticated viruses and
    disassembles them, looking for clever ideas.

    2.8) The Naughty Hacker.
    ------------------------

    This virus writer, M.H., is a pupil and also lives in Sofia. He has
    written several viruses, most of which contain the string "Naughty
    Hacker" in their body. All of them are non-- destructive, but contain
    different video effects --- from display desynchronization to a
    bouncing ball.

    Currently, at least 8 different variants are isolated, but it is
    believed that even more exist and are spread in the wild. Also, it is
    believed that M.H. continues to produce viruses. As usual, he is
    doing so "because it is interesting" and "for fun."

    He is also the author of three simple boot sector viruses (BOOTHORSE
    and two others that are still unnamed).

    2.9) Other known virus writers.
    -------------------------------

    The persons listed above are the major Bulgarian virus producers.
    However, they are not alone. Several other people in Bulgaria have
    written at least one virus (sometimes more). In fact, making a virus
    is currently considered there a kind of sport, or a practical joke,
    or means of self--establishment.

    Some of these virus writers have supplied their creations directly to
    the anti--virus researchers, as if they are waiting for a reward.
    This happens quite often --- probably they expect that the
    anti--virus researcher, as the best qualified person, will evaluate
    their creation better. Sometimes the fact that their virus becomes
    known, is described, and is included in the best anti--virus programs
    is sufficient for these people and they don't bother to really spread
    their virus in the wild. So, probably the main reason for these
    people to produce viruses is the seek of glory, fame, and
    self--establishment.

    Such known Bulgarian virus writers (with the respective names of
    their viruses given in parentheses) are V.D. from Pleven (MICRO-128),
    A.S. and R.D. from Mihajlovgrad (V123), I.D. from Trojan (MUTANT,
    V127, V270x), K.D. from Tutrakan (BOYS, WARRIER, WARRIOR, DREAM), and
    others.

    2.10) Unknown Bulgarian virus writers.
    --------------------------------------

    Of course, there are also other virus writers, that are not known to
    the author of this paper. Sometimes it is possible to determine the
    town where the viruses were developed --- usually due to an
    appropriate string in the virus body, or because the virus wasn't
    found elsewhere. Some of the viruses are very simple, others are
    quite sophisticated. Here are examples of such viruses.


    - The KAMIKAZE virus has been detected only in the Institute of
    Mathematics at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Sofia and is
    probably made there;

    - The RAT virus, made in Sofia, as it is written in its body;

    - The VFSI (HAPPY DAY) virus has been developed in the Higher
    Institute of Finances and Economics in Svishtov (a small town on the
    Danube) by an unknown programmer;

    - The DESTRUCTOR virus, probably made in Plovdiv, where it has been
    first detected;

    - The PARITY virus, probably written in the Technical University,
    Sofia, since it has not been detected elsewhere;

    - The TONY file and boot sector viruses, probably created in Plovdiv
    where they have been first detected;

    - The ETC virus, detected only in Sofia;

    - The 1963 virus, a quite sophisticated one, probably made in the
    Sofia University;

    - The JUSTICE virus.

    2.11) The Virus eXchange BBS.
    -----------------------------

    About a year ago, the virus writing in Bulgaria entered a new phase.
    The virus writers began to organize themselves. The first step was
    the creation of a specialized bulletin board system (BBS), dedicated
    to virus exchange. The Virus eXchange BBS.

    It's system operator (SysOp), T.T. is a student of computer science
    in the Sofia University. He has established the BBS in his own home.
    On this BBS, there are two major kinds of files --- anti--virus
    programs and viruses. The anti--virus programs can be downloaded
    freely.

    In order to get access to the virus area, one has to upload there a
    new virus. However, anyone who uploads a new virus, gets access to
    the whole virus collection. S/He could then download every virus that
    is already available, or even all of them. No questions are asked ---
    for instance for what reason s/he might need these viruses.

    Furthermore, the SysOp takes no steps to verify the identity of his
    users. They are allowed to use fake names and are even encouraged to
    do so. Dark Avenger and W.T., between them are, the most active
    users, but there are also names like George Bush from New York,
    Saddam Hussein from Baghdad, Ozzy Ozburn and others.

    Since this BBS has already a large collection of computer viruses
    (about 300), it is quite difficult to find a new virus for it. If one
    wants badly to get access to the virus area, it is much simpler to
    write a new virus, instead of trying to find a new one. That is
    exactly what W.T. did. Therefore, this BBS encourages virus writing.

    Furthermore, on this BBS there are all kinds of viruses --- some of
    them as 1260, V2P6Z, FLIP, WHALE are considered as extremely
    dangerous, since they are using several new ideas and clever tricks,
    which makes them very difficult to be recognized and removed from the
    infected files. And the Virus eXchange BBS policy makes all these
    viruses freely available to any hacker that bothers to download them.
    This will, undoubtedly, lead to the creation of more and more such
    "difficult" viruses in the near future.

    The free availability of live viruses has already given its bitter
    fruits. It helped to viruses created far away from Bulgaria and not
    widely spread, to cause epidemics in our country. Such was the case
    of the DATALOCK virus. It has been created in California, USA and
    uploaded to the Virus eXchange BBS. A few weeks later it was detected
    in the Technical University, Sofia. Probably one of the users of the
    BBS had downloaded it from there and spread it "for fun." In the
    similar way the INTERNAL, TYPO and 1575 viruses entered our country.

    But the free availability of known live viruses is not the most
    dangerous thing. After all, since they are already known, there
    already exist programs to detect and probably to remove them. Much
    more dangerous is the free availability on this BBS of virus source
    code! Indeed, original source code or well commented virus
    disassemblies of several viruses are freely available on the Virus
    eXchange BBS --- just as any other live virus. To name a few, there
    are:

    DARK AVENGER, OLD YANKEE, DIAMOND, AMSTRAD, HYMN, MLTI830, MURPHY,
    MAGNITOGORSK, ICELANDIC, MIX1, STONED, JERUSALEM, DATACRIME, BURGER,
    ARMAGEDON, OROPAX, DARTH VADER, NAUGHTY HACKER, 512, VIENNA, 4096,
    FISH#6, PING PONG, BLACK JEC, WWT, MG, TSD, BOOTHORSE, BAD BOY,
    LEECH...

    Most of them are perfectly assemblable sources.

    The publishing of virus source code has proven to be the most
    dangerous thing in this field. The VIENNA, JERUSALEM, CASCADE and
    AMSTRAD viruses are the best examples. Their source code has been
    made publicly available, which led to the creation of scores of new
    variants of these viruses. The known variants of only these four
    viruses are about 20 % of all known viruses, which means more than a
    hundred variants. One can imagine the consequences of making publicly
    available the source code of all the viruses listed above. In less
    than a year we probably will be submerged by thousands new
    variants...

    In fact, this process has already begun. The HIV, MIGRAM, KAMASYA,
    CEMETERY and ANTICHRIST viruses have been obviously created by
    someone who had access to the source of the MURPHY virus. The ENIGMA
    virus is clearly based on the OLD YANKEE code. There have been
    reports about infections with these viruses in one Italian school and
    an Italian virus writer, known as Cracker Jack is a user of Virus
    eXchange...

    The damage caused by this BBS alone to the rest of the world is big
    enough. But this is not all. Since possession of "viral knowledge"
    (i.e., live viruses, virus source code) has always tempted hackers
    and since the legitimate anti--virus researchers usually exchange
    such things only between themselves and in a very restricted manner,
    it is not surprising that similar "virus boards" began to pop up
    around the world. There are currently such BBSes in the USA, Germany,
    Italy, Sweden, Czechoslovakia, the UK and the Soviet Union. Stopping
    their activities is very difficult in legal terms, because the
    possession, storage or willful downloading of computer viruses
    usually is not considered as a criminal offence. And it shouldn't be
    --- otherwise the anti--virus researchers themselves will not have a
    way to exchange virus samples to work with.

    The creation of a virus--oriented BBS, the system operator of which
    supported the writing, spreading and exchanging of virus code didn't
    go unnoticed in Bulgaria. Almost all virus writers have obtained a
    modem (a not very easy thing in Bulgaria) and contacted it.
    Afterwards, they began to contact each other by means of electronic
    messages on this BBS. They have even created a specialized local
    conference (local for Bulgaria), in order to keep in touch and to
    exchange ideas how to write clever viruses. Therefore, they began to
    organize themselves --- a thing that cannot be said about the
    anti--virus research community in all countries...

    3) New ideas.
    =============

    As it can be seen from the examples above, the whole of Bulgaria has
    turned into some kind of computer virus developing laboratory, where
    any capable (or not so capable) pupil/student/ programmer is tempted
    to write his own virus and to test it in the wild. It is not
    therefore unusual that several completely new ideas were first
    developed in our country. I shall try to enumerate here some (only
    the most important) of them.


    - The interrupt tracing technique, capable of finding the original
    handler (in DOS or BIOS) of any interrupt vector, has been first
    implemented in the YANKEE DOODLE (TP) viruses. Later other viruses in
    the world began to use it (4096, NAUGHTY HACKER).

    - The "fast infectors" --- viruses that infect on file opening or
    even on any file operation were first developed in Bulgaria. The
    first such virus was the DARK AVENGER. Now there are a lot of fast
    infectors. One of them --- 1963 --- even infects on file deletion.

    - The "semi--stealth" viruses --- viruses that hide the increasing of
    the size of the infected files (the 651 virus) or that remove them
    from the inflected files when one loads them with a debugger (YANKEE
    DOODLE) both are viruses, made in our country.

    - Hiding the true file length usually causes problems, because CHKDSK
    is able to detect the difference between the disk space marked as
    used in the FAT and the reported file length. Only two Bulgarian
    viruses in the world are able to handle this problem --- DIAMOND and
    V2100.

    - The first really "stealth" file infector --- the 512 virus was
    Bulgarian. It is true however, that the idea has been discovered
    independently almost at the same time in other parts of the world
    (the 4096 virus from Israel).

    - The only known stealth parasitic virus, which "stealthy" features
    go down to the BIOS level (i.e., it cannot be detected if active in
    memory even if the infected file is read at sector and not at file
    level) is the Bulgarian INT13 virus.

    - One of the first multi--partite viruses (viruses that are able to
    infect both files and boot sectors) --- the ANTHRAX virus, has been
    developed in Bulgaria. It is true, however, that similar ideas can be
    noticed in the 4096 and GHOST BALLS viruses, which are developed much
    earlier. Also, other multi--partite viruses (VIRUS-101, V-1, FLIP,
    INVADER) were created independently almost at the same time (and even
    earlier) in other parts of the world.

    - The idea first used in the LEHIGH virus --- to place the virus body
    in an unused part of the file COMMAND.COM has been further developed
    by several Bulgarian viruses. They all can infect any COM or EXE file
    (unlike the LEHIGH virus) in the usual way, but when they are
    infecting the command interpreter, they place themselves in an area
    filled with zeros at the end of the file and thus in this case they
    do not increase its length. Such viruses are TERROR, NAUGHTY HACKER
    and others.

    - The method, mentioned above has been developed even further by
    other Bulgarian viruses. They have noticed that any sufficiently
    large area of zeros in any file (not just COMMAND.COM) can be used to
    hide the virus body. The viruses that use this method are again of
    Bulgarian origin --- PROUD, EVIL, PHOENIX, RAT, DARTH VADER... The
    latter even does not write to the infected files --- it leaves this
    task to DOS. And the RAT virus hides itself into the unused part of
    the EXE file headers.

    - One of the extremely mutating viruses is the Dark Avenger's virus
    LEECH. It can exist in more than 4.5 billion variants. It is true,
    however, that this is neither the first entirely mutating virus (1260
    being the first), nor it has the most flexible mutating mechanism (it
    is much simpler than V2P6Z).

    - A completely new type of computer virus (DIR II) has been developed
    by two Bulgarian pupils. This virus does not infect neither files,
    nor boot sectors. Instead, it infects file systems as a whole, or
    more exactly --- directory entries.

    - Different tricks to get control without directly hooking the INT
    21h vector were developed by several Bulgarian virus writers. The
    TERROR virus places a JMP instruction to its body in the original INT
    21h handler in DOS. The viruses from the PHOENIX family ( 800, 1226,
    PROUD, EVIL, PHOENIX) hook an interrupt that is called by DOS on
    every file--related function (INT 2Ah, AH=82h). The DIR II virus
    patches itself in the chain of DOS disk device drivers.

    - The first virus, that is able to infect device drivers (SYS files
    only), is, of course, Bulgarian. This is the HAPPY NEW YEAR ( 1600)
    virus.

    - The first fully functional parasitic virus, written entirely in a
    high level language (Turbo PASCAL) is the Bulgarian virus SENTINEL.

    - The Bulgarian virus ANTHRAX is the first virus that is resident in
    memory only temporary. It removes itself from there after it has
    infected the first file and then acts as a non--resident virus.

    - The shortest memory resident virus in the IBM PC world --- only 128
    bytes --- is again developed in Bulgaria. There are reports about a
    108--byte resident virus, also from there, but they are unconfirmed
    yet.

    - The shortest virus in the IBM PC world --- only 45 bytes long, is
    the Bulgarian virus MINIMAL-45. It seems possible, however, to
    shorten it even further --- up to 31 bytes, with a big loss of
    reliability.

    4) Why so many viruses are created in Bulgaria.
    ===============================================

    Computer viruses are created in all parts of the world, not only in
    Bulgaria. However, the portion of them that are created in our
    country is extremely high. Therefore, in the whole world there exist
    preconditions that make virus writing tempting, but in Bulgaria there
    exist specific conditions as well.

    4.1) Specific reasons for virus writing in Bulgaria.
    ----------------------------------------------------

    4.1.1)

    The first, and most important of all is the existence of a
    huge army of young and extremely qualified people, computer wizards,
    that are not actively involved in the economic life.

    The computerization in Bulgaria began without economical reasons.
    Since our country was a socialist one, its economics was of
    administrative type. The economics didn't need to be computerized. In
    fact, computers and planned economics are quite incompatible ---
    computers help you to produce more in less time and with less effort
    and money, while the goal of a manager in a planned economics is to
    fulfil the plan exactly as it is given --- for no more and no less
    time, and with no more and no less money. However, the communist
    party leaders in Bulgaria decided that we should computerize ---
    mainly to be able to supply computers to the Soviet Union and
    circumvent the embargo.

    While computerization in itself is not a bad thing, we made a very
    severe mistake. Bulgarian economics was very weak (now it is even
    weaker), but we had quite a lot skilled people. Therefore, we should
    not have tried to produce hardware while we had good chances in the
    software industry, where mainly "brainware" is required. However,
    Bulgaria did just the opposite. Instead of buying the hardware, we
    began to produce it (mainly illegal Apple and IBM clones). Instead of
    producing our own software and to try to sell it in the West, we
    began to steal Western computer programs, to change some copyright
    notices in them, and to re--sell them (mainly in Bulgaria, in the
    Soviet Union, and in the other countries of the former Eastern
    block).

    At that time most Western software was copy protected. Instead of
    training our skilled people in writing their own programs, we began
    to train them to break copy protection schemes. And they achieved
    great success in this field. The Bulgarian hackers are maybe the best
    in cracking copy protected programs. Besides, they had no real hope
    in making and selling their own programs, since, due to the total
    lack of copyright law on computer software, it was impossible to sell
    more than two or three examples of a computer program in Bulgaria.
    The rest were copied.

    Since the introduction of computers in the Bulgarian offices was not
    a natural process, but due to an administrative order, very often
    these computers were not used --- they were only considered as an
    object of prestige. Very often on the desk of a company director,
    near the phone, stood a personal computer. The director himself
    almost never used the computer --- however sometimes his/her children
    came to the office to use it --- to play games or to investigate its
    internals. While the price of personal computers in Bulgaria was too
    high to permit a private person to have his/her own computer, it was
    a common practice to use the computer at the office for personal
    reasons. At the same time, the computer education was very widely
    introduced in Bulgaria. Everyone was educated in this field --- from
    children in the kindergartens to old teachers that had just a few
    years until pension. Since this kind of science is better
    comprehended by younger brains, it is no wonder that the people, who
    became most skilled in this field, were very young. Very young and
    not morally grown--up. We spent a lot of effort teaching these people
    how to program, but forgot to educate them in computer ethics.
    Besides, the lack of respect to the others' work is a common problem
    in the socialist societies.

    4.1.2)

    The second main reason is the wide--spread practice of software
    pirating (which was, in fact, a kind of state policy) and the very
    low payment of the average programmers.

    As was mentioned above, Bulgaria took the wrong decision in producing
    computers and stealing programs. There is still no copyright law,
    concerning computer software there. Because of this, the software
    piracy was an extremely widespread practice. In fact, almost all
    software products used were illegal copies. Most people using them
    have never seen the original diskettes or original documentation.
    Very often there was no documentation at all.

    Since all kinds of programs (from games to desktop publishing
    systems) were copied very often, this greatly helped for the spread
    of computer viruses.

    At the same time, the work of the average programmer was evaluated
    very low --- there were almost no chances to sell his/her software
    products. Even now, a programmer in Bulgaria is paid 100 to 120 times
    less than the programmer with the same qualification in the USA.

    This caused several young people to become embittered against the
    society that was unable to evaluate them as it should. There is only
    one step in the transformation of these young people into creators of
    destructive viruses. Some of them (e.g., the Dark Avenger) took this
    step.

    4.1.3)

    The third major reason is the total lack of legislative against
    creation and willful distribution of computer viruses and against
    illegal access and modification of computer information in general.


    Because of the lack of copyright laws on computer software, there is
    no such thing as ownership of computer information in Bulgaria.
    Therefore, the modification or even the destruction of computer
    information is not considered a crime --- since no one's property is
    damaged.

    The Bulgarian legislature is hopelessly old in this area.
    Furthermore, even if the appropriate law is accepted in the future,
    as a punishing law it will not be able to be applied to crimes,
    committed before it was passed. Therefore, the virus writers still
    have nothing to fear of.

    That is why, the creation of new computer viruses has become some
    kind of sport or entertainment in Bulgaria.

    4.1.4)

    The next reason is the very weak organization of the fight against
    computer viruses in Bulgaria. Just now our country is in a very deep
    economical crisis. We lack funds for everything, including such basic
    goods as food and gasoline. At the same time, the organization of the
    virus fight would require money --- for the establishment of a
    network of virus test centers that collect and investigate computer
    viruses, centers equipped with the best hardware, centers that are
    able to communicate between themselves and with the other similar
    centers in the world in an effective way. Such an effective way is
    the electronic mail system --- and Bulgaria still does its first
    steps in global computer communications. All this requires a lot of
    money --- money that our government just does not have now. 4.1.5)
    Another reason is the incorrect opinion, that the society has on the
    computer virus problem.

    Still, the victims of a computer virus attack consider themselves as
    victims of a bad joke, not as victims of a crime.

    4.1.6)

    The least important reason, in my opinion, is the availability and
    the easy access to information of a particular kind.

    All kind of tricks how to fool the operating system circulate among
    the Bulgarian hackers. Some of them are often published in the
    computer related magazines. As it was mentioned above, there is even
    a specialized BBS, dedicated to virus spreading and a special (local
    to Bulgaria) FidoNet echo, dedicated to virus writing. Not to mention
    the well--known file INTERxyy, published by Ralf Brown from the USA
    as shareware. It is very popular in Bulgaria, since it contains,
    carefully described, a huge number of undocumented tricks.

    However, this is not a very important reason. Usually those, who have
    decided to make a virus already know how to do it, or, at least, can
    figure it out by themselves. They do not need to take an existing
    virus and to modify it. The proof is the prevalence of original
    Bulgarian viruses over the variants of known ones, as well as the
    fact, that many new ideas for virus writing were first invented and
    implemented in Bulgaria.

    4.2) General reasons.
    ---------------------

    Since viruses are also created in all the other parts of the world,
    there should be also some general reasons for this. These reasons
    are, of course, valid for Bulgaria too. Let's see these general
    reasons.

    4.2.1) Wish for glory.

    Every programmer dreams that his/her program gets widely spread and
    used. A lot of very good programmers write and distribute wonderful
    software packages for free --- with the only intention to have more
    users using their package. However, for a program to be used, it has
    to be good enough. And not every programmer is able to make a program
    so good that the users will widely use it --- even for free. At the
    same time, computer viruses do spread very widely, regardless and
    even against the users' will. So, when a virus writer reads in a
    newspaper that his virus has been discovered at the other end of the
    world, he feels some kind of perverted pleasure. Some people write
    viruses just to see their names (or the names of their viruses)
    published in the newspapers. This reason has yet another aspect. In
    the beginning of the virus era, when the idea of the computer virus
    was very new, only the very good programmers were able to make a
    virus. It became a common myth that if you can write a virus, you're
    a great programmer. This myth might have been justified at the
    beginning, but now it is completely without sense. Nevertheless,
    young hackers began to write viruses --- just to prove to their
    friends and to the rest of the world how good programmers they are.
    Some of them were really unable to invent something original ---
    that's why they just picked a known virus, modified it a bit and
    released this new mutation. This explains why there are so many
    variants of the simplest viruses that were first created --- BRAIN,
    JERUSALEM, STONED, VIENNA, CASCADE... A typical example is the
    Italian virus writer, who calls himself Cracker Jack.

    4.2.2) Simple human curiosity.

    One has to admit that the idea of a computer program that is able to
    spread by its own means, to replicate, to hide from the user (who is
    believed to maintain the computer under full control), and in general
    to behave as a real live being is really fascinating. Just simple
    human curiosity is sufficient to make some people, if they are young
    and irresponsible enough, to try to make a computer virus. Some of
    them do succeed. A greater and greater part, if we consider the
    amount of last reports for new viruses. Some of them claim that they
    are writing viruses "only for themselves," "only for fun," and that
    "they do not spread them." However, it is often impossible to fully
    control the spread of a "successful" computer virus. The more clever
    these viruses are, the greater the probability that they will
    "escape." There is an idea to teach students how viruses are made ---
    of course in a very strongly restricted environment. Maybe at least
    for some this will fulfil their curiosity and they will not be
    tempted to write their own virus. Maybe if we force every computer
    science student to learn Dr. Fred Cohen's theorems on the
    computational aspects of computer viruses, if we administer an exam
    and ask students to design a virus protection scheme or to help a
    cluster of users, attacked by a computer virus for a course work ---
    well, maybe in this case these students will have more than enough of
    the computer virus problem and will not want to hear about it any
    more --- least to make their own viruses. 4.2.3) Easy access to
    information.

    Sufficient information, needed to write a virus can be found easily.
    This information is often even more accessible than in Bulgaria.

    The person that wants to write an average virus needs only to dig in
    the respective manuals --- manuals, which are often not available in
    Bulgaria. However, the usefulness of the easy access to this
    information is much greater than the damage, caused by the fact that
    it is used by the virus writers.

    4.2.4) Military interests.

    It is often rumoured that the superpowers are working on the problem
    how to use computer viruses to destroy the enemy computers' software.
    It is even very probable, that in several countries such research is
    performed. There are reports on this from the USA, France and the
    USSR.

    This is no wonder --- it is the right of every military force to
    investigate any new idea and to consider the possible usefulness
    and/or threats it might bring to the national defense. However, it is
    quite improbable that the computer viruses can be used for this
    purpose. Just like the live viruses, the computer ones are able to
    spread only among individuals with very similar immunotype, i.e. ---
    among compatible computers. The most widely used kinds of personal
    computers are the IBM PC, Macintosh, Amiga and Atari ST. It is
    therefore no wonder that the vast majority of existing computer
    viruses are able to infect only these computers. In the same time,
    viruses that infect one kind of computer (say, IBM PC), are unable to
    spread (or even to run) on another (e.g., a Macintosh). They are
    usually not able to run even on two different operating systems in
    one and the same computer. Even a different version of the same
    operating system might cause big problems to a particular computer
    virus --- up to preventing it to work. The common personal computers
    are never assigned important tasks in the army. Therefore, even if a
    virus infects them, and even if it destroys all the data on all such
    computers, the caused damage will not be of great importance.
    Computers that are used for the really important things, such as
    rocket leading or cannon aiming, are always specialized ones. Their
    programs are usually hard--coded and only data can be entered in
    them. It is not possible to insert an infected IBM PC diskette in the
    computers that control the NORAD system. At the same time, the
    computers that control different important devices are usually
    incompatible even between themselves. Therefore, even if someone
    writes a virus for a specialized rocket computer, this virus will not
    be able to infect the computers of a strategic bomber or even these
    of a rocket of a different system. So, such virus will not spread
    very much. And last, but not least, such virus has to be placed
    somehow in the enemy's computers. Since, as we saw above, it won't be
    able to spread from one computer to another of a different kind,
    obviously someone has to insert it in the victim computer. But if you
    have access to the enemy's computers, you don't need a virus. You can
    do the same task easier (and often much better) "manually", or with a
    Trojan horse or a logic bomb. 4..2.5) Corporate interests.

    It is also often speculated that the large software companies and the
    producers of anti--virus software make or willfully spread computer
    viruses.

    There is some reason behind this. Indeed the fear of viruses can make
    the user buy only original software (sometimes --- quite expensive),
    and not to use pirated copies, shareware or freeware. At the same
    time, companies that produce anti--virus software are interested that
    their products are sold. And they will be, if the user needs
    anti--virus protection. However, it is rather improbable, that a
    software company (whether producing or not anti--virus software) will
    take the risk to become known that it willfully spreads viruses. It
    will be probably boycotted by its users and the losses of income will
    be much greater than any gains. As to the producers of anti--virus
    software, they don't need to write viruses themselves, in order to
    sell their programs. It is sufficient to use the hype that the media
    accords to the problem, to mention how many viruses there are and how
    many of them their wonderful product is able to defeat.

    5) The Soviet virus factory and virus writing in the other countries
    =====================================================================
    of the former Eastern block.
    ============================

    While Bulgaria was one of the best computerized countries in East
    Europe, the political, economical, and social conditions in the other
    countries were (and maybe still are) quite similar. That is why the
    virus writing and spreading has been developed in these countries
    too.

    Viruses are created in Poland ( W13, 217, 583, FATHER CHRISTMAS, DOT
    EATER, JOKER, VCOMM, AKUKU, 311, HYBRYD), in Hungary ( STONE `90,
    FILLER, MONXLA, POLIMER, TURBO KUKAC), in Czechoslovakia (the
    AANTIVIRUS virus), and even in Yugoslavia ( 17Y4, SVIR). According to
    some reports from Romania, there are no viruses written there, but
    the W13, YANKEE DOODLE, DARK AVENGER and StONED viruses are quite
    widespread.

    However, the country most similar to Bulgaria is, undoubtedly, the
    Soviet Union. According to the Soviet anti--virus researcher Bezrukov
    [Bezrukov], the first virus appeared there almost at the same time as
    in Bulgaria and, by the way, it was the same virus ( VIENNA). So, the
    preconditions are almost the same as with our country.

    There are, however, two main differences: the level of
    computerization and the number of virus writers.

    The level of computerization is still much lower than in Bulgaria.
    There are much fewer computers per person than in our country. The
    users are much more isolated, due to the much larger distances. The
    telephone network is in the same miserable condition, as in Bulgaria.
    The networks are very few and not widely used. For instance, in Sofia
    alone there are more FidoNet nodes than in the whole Soviet Union. It
    is not safe to send floppy disks by regular mail, since they will be
    probably stolen. All this delays very much the spreading of viruses.
    Unfortunately, it also delays the distribution of anti--virus
    products and the information exchange between the anti--virus
    researchers. For instance, examples of new viruses created there
    reach the Western anti--virus researchers with huge delays.
    Unfortunately, the other factor is much more dangerous. In the USSR
    there are much more programmers than in Bulgaria and they seem at
    least as much motivated in creating new viruses. The virus writing in
    the Soviet Union is currently in the same state as it was in Bulgaria
    about three years ago. However, at that time only nine variants of
    known viruses and one stupid original virus has been created there (6
    VIENNA variants, 3 AMSTRAD variants, and the OLD YANKEE virus). At
    the first Soviet anti--virus conference in Kiev (mid--November, 1990)
    more than 35 different viruses of Russian origin were reported.

    Some of them were variants of known viruses, while others were
    completely new. It has been noticed that the Soviet virus writers are
    less qualified than the Bulgarian ones, but they use a destructive
    payload in their creations much more often.

    Since the reasons of virus writing in the USSR are very similar to
    those in Bulgaria; since this virus writing occurs in a much larger
    scale; and since no steps are taken by the authorities in order to
    stop it, it is possible to predict that in the next few years the
    Soviet Union will be far ahead of Bulgaria in computer virus creation
    and that a new, much larger wave of computer viruses will come from
    there. Probably after a year, several (up to ten) virus writers with
    the qualification of the Dark Avenger will emerge from there.

    6) The impact of the Bulgarian viruses on the West and on the national
    ======================================================================
    software industry.
    ==================

    While a huge part of the existing viruses are
    produced in Bulgaria, a relatively very small part of them spread
    successfully to the West. Of more than 160 Bulgarian viruses, only
    very few ( DARK AVENGER, V2000, V2100, PHOENIX, DIAMOND,
    NOMENKLATURA, VACSINA, YANKEE DOODLE) are relatively widespread. At
    the same time some of them ( DARK AVENGER, V2000, YANKEE DOODLE,
    VACSINA) are extremely widespread. According to John McAfee, about 10
    % of all infections in the USA are caused by Bulgarian viruses ---
    usually by the DARK AVENGER virus. In West Europe this virus shares
    the popularity with YANKEE DOODLE and VACSINA.

    Of the viruses listed above, the major part are written by the Dark
    Avenger --- all except YANKEE DOODLE and VACSINA. Almost all his
    viruses (in this case --- with the exception of DIAMOND, which is the
    least spread) are extremely destructive. The PHOENIX and NOMENKLATURA
    viruses corrupt the FAT in such a subtle way, that when the user
    notices the damage, there is no way to disinfect the infected files
    and even to determine which files are damaged. The only way is to
    reformat the hard disk.

    It is difficult to estimate the costs of all damage caused by
    Bulgarian viruses. There are reports from Germany about a 10,000,000
    DM damage, caused only by the VACSINA virus. It is probable, however,
    that these numbers are largely overestimated.

    The huge number of known Bulgarian viruses causes also indirect
    damage to the West community, even if the viruses themselves do not
    escape from Bulgaria, but only examples of them are supplied to the
    anti--virus researchers. These researchers have to develop
    anti--virus programs against these viruses (just in case the latter
    succeed to spread outside Bulgaria). Therefore, they have to waste
    their time and efforts. Furthermore, the user is forced to buy new
    anti--virus programs (or pay for updates of the old ones), in order
    to feel safe against these viruses. In the same time, the creation
    and spreading of Bulgarian viruses causes a lot of damage to the
    Bulgarian economics. In Bulgaria, the Bulgarian viruses are much more
    widespread. More than 80 % of about 160 known Bulgarian viruses have
    been detected in the wild in our country. It is difficult, however,
    to evaluate, or even to estimate the exact costs of the caused
    damage, since in Bulgaria the term "property of computer information"
    simply does not exist in legal sense. It is the same with the cost of
    this information. In fact, the creation of computer viruses causes
    also indirect damage to our economics. First of all, a lot of
    extremely capable people are wasting their minds to create
    destructive viruses, instead of something useful. Second, the fact
    that the Bulgarian programmers use their time to create computer
    viruses destroys their reputation as a whole. No serious software
    company accepts to deal with Bulgarian programmers or software
    companies, because it is afraid that the supplied software might be
    pirated or might contain a virus. 7) Conclusion. Virus writing in
    Bulgaria is an extremely widespread hobby. Most of the major virus
    writers are known, but no measures can be taken against them. Their
    work causes a lot of damage to the Western community, as well as to
    the national economics. Therefore, it is urgent to take legal
    measures in this direction; measures that will make virus writing and
    willful spread of computer viruses a criminal act. This is the only
    way to stop, or at least to reduce the threat.

    References
    ==========

    [KV88] Viruses in Memory, Komputar za vas, 4--5, 1988, pp.12--13 (in
    Bulgarian)

    [KV89] The Truth about Computer Viruses, Vesselin Bontchev, Komputar
    za vas, 1--2, 1989, pp. 5--6 (in Bulgarian)

    [Chip] Die neue Gefahr --- Computerviren, Steffen Wernery, Chip, 9,
    1987, pp. 34--37 (in German)

    [Bezrukov] Computer Virology, Nikolay Nikolaevitch Bezrukov, Kiev,
    1991, ISBN 5-88500-931-X (in Russian)


    foxdie

  2. #2
    Senior Member
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    interesting article.. but some folks like to see a link..

    "linkage" is here.

    edit : the other thing is that it's a "little bit" old..

  3. #3
    Senior Member
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    Yea its also on astalavista.com at the moment. Its an interesting article with some interesting points in

    i2c

  4. #4
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    That really was a good and interesting read!
    I've seen this article in many places however. Its seems to be on as good as every security discussion board.
    -HDD

  5. #5
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    Although it sounds interesting, it's too far from the truth and at least is far more outdated.

  6. #6
    Ugh another cut & paste job from foxdie -_-

    v_Ln

  7. #7
    Senior Member nihil's Avatar
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    OMG!

    I do hope that this does not spark up a "discussion" between catch and pooh

    Just my thoughts

  8. #8
    AO Ancient: Team Leader
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    Nihil:

    After a recent PM conversation with Pooh I think that he won't be back..... Which, in some ways, is bloody unfortunate. Apparently a comment I made that is similar to yours today "pushed him over the edge". We discussed it at some length but he seemed determined.... Knowing what I know about him now it's not un-surprising but a little peturbing to think that it was such an innocuous comment I made pushed him out.

    In order to stay on topic..... Ahhhh.... History..... I remember talking with Frisk and others in the early 90's on BBs's about Avenger and Mcafee... the rumors were rife about the two of them being in collusion. When DAME came out Mcafee had a fix in days.... quite remarkable at that time.... Linked with some other things I was pretty convinced that the connection between the two was probably genuine..... but it was always denied and always impossible to prove.

    Don\'t SYN us.... We\'ll SYN you.....
    \"A nation that draws too broad a difference between its scholars and its warriors will have its thinking done by cowards, and its fighting done by fools.\" - Thucydides

  9. #9
    The Doctor Und3ertak3r's Avatar
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    [KV88] Viruses in Memory, Komputar za vas, 4--5, 1988, pp.12--13 (in
    Bulgarian)

    [KV89] The Truth about Computer Viruses, Vesselin Bontchev, Komputar
    za vas, 1--2, 1989, pp. 5--6 (in Bulgarian)

    [Chip] Die neue Gefahr --- Computerviren, Steffen Wernery, Chip, 9,
    1987, pp. 34--37 (in German)

    [Bezrukov] Computer Virology, Nikolay Nikolaevitch Bezrukov, Kiev,
    1991, ISBN 5-88500-931-X (in Russian)
    old is not the word.. how about something in this bloody millenium.. Childeren born when this artical was written are now writting Virii.. this artical is greater than 2 generations old in Computer terms..

    And TS;
    I remember talking with Frisk and others in the early 90's on BBs's about Avenger and Mcafee... the rumors were rife about the two of them being in collusion. When DAME came out Mcafee had a fix in days.... quite remarkable at that time.... Linked with some other things I was pretty convinced that the connection between the two was probably genuine..... but it was always denied and always impossible to prove.
    Mate you are parnoid.. the Av companies are there to help us end users.. not increase our headaches at their profit.. (J/K)

    Cheers
    "Consumer technology now exceeds the average persons ability to comprehend how to use it..give up hope of them being able to understand how it works." - Me http://www.cybercrypt.co.nr

  10. #10
    AO Ancient: Team Leader
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    Undies.... This was a _few_ years ago.... The suspicioun was rife.... I subscribed to it..... Was I wrong? I still can't say for sure..... Is it happening now? Of course not.... but Mcaffe wasn't a stock market "player" back then.....
    Don\'t SYN us.... We\'ll SYN you.....
    \"A nation that draws too broad a difference between its scholars and its warriors will have its thinking done by cowards, and its fighting done by fools.\" - Thucydides

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