Re: [2600-AU] The article by Roulla Yiacoumi at Newswire entitled "NewLove bug threat emerges" (fwd)

[Grant Bayley <gbayley () AUSMAC NET>]

Mark,

Having seen your response to the various articles on the "New Love"
virus/worm on the 2600 mailing list, I feel compelled to respond, if only
to call Mr Sanders' (Valiant's) bluff.

The key point of your email seemed to focus on dispelling an apparent myth
that Mr Sanders wrote the so-called "New Love" virus/worm.  The odd thing
about this "myth" is in two parts; firstly that it was created by Mr
Sanders himself when he made contact with Wired Magazine regarding the
ease with which one might modify the "Love" virus/worm and secondly that
in the process, he's not stated his intentions clearly in conversations
with Wired and has ended up implicating himself in a caper which spans the
globe and for which there is no universal, single suspect that
governments and law enforcement can extract a symbolic pound of flesh
from.

> From a technical standpoint, the fact that an individual examined the
source code of the existing "Love" virus/worm and opined and perhaps
experimented with an increased potential for destruction is not at all
outstanding by any means.  There were numerous reports on the nature of
the virus and in belatedly issuing a patch for their affected application,
Microsoft appears to have conceded it's potential.  So common is this type
of analysis and extrapolation of potential, one might even suggest it's as
exclusive a club as the White Pages telephone directory.  In any case, Mr
Sanders should be called upon to substantiate his claim of parentage,
accidental or otherwise.  I, for one, believe his story is pure
fabrication.

One would hope for the sake of his budding career as a web developer and
apparently virus developer, Mr Sanders will in future have the sense to
refrain from implicating himself further in one of the most overhyped and
overblown criminal investigations in recent memory, bungled or otherwise.
Senator Amanda Vanstone (Federal Justice Minister) and her Universal
Criminal Code will certainly see to it if he and others do not.

Grant Bayley
(aka Dogcow)

-------------------------------------------------------
Grant Bayley                         gbayley () ausmac net
-IT Manager @ Batey Kazoo            (www.kazoo.com.au)
-Admin @ AusMac Archive, Wiretapped.net, 2600 Australia
 www.ausmac.net   www.wiretapped.net   www.2600.org.au
-------------------------------------------------------

On Mon, 22 May 2000, Mark Arena wrote:

> Date: Mon, 22 May 2000 21:48:02 +0800
> From: Mark Arena <marena () iinet net au>
> Reply-To: 2600-list () wiretapped net
> To: akidman () acp com au
> Cc: 2600-list () wiretapped net, ISN () SECURITYFOCUS COM
> Subject: [2600-AU] The article by Roulla Yiacoumi at Newswire entitled
    "NewLove bug threat emerges"
> To who it may concern,
>
> With regards to the article titled "NewLove bug threat emerges" at
> http://www.newswire.com.au/apcweb/news.nsf/Web/LatestNews/2E3B2120DC61DCABCA
> 2568E7000B3385?OpenDocument
>
> This part at the end of the article is completly incorrect:
> "According to Wired News, an Australian hacker has been blamed for the
> spread of the new virus"
> Before assuming things it is the responsibility of the writer to actully
> understand what has happened. For starters if you actully read the article
> on wired it says the Australian hacker "Valiant" didnt actully make the new
> virus. He made a variant which he copied off the love virus as an example of
> how easy it is to make. It also says that the virus he made was harmless. He
> did not make this "new virus" he just made a good example how to make it.
> This virus he had was not released just sent to wired.
>
> The following is taken from the Wired article at
> http://www.wired.com/news/lovebug/0,1768,36477,00.html
> "Also earning villain points from Valiant are media outlets that wildly jump
> on any information that contains the word "virus."  - Maybe Newswire could
> take some hints from this one?
>
> "Valiant," the founder of Australian hacker group Halcon, sent his harmless
> "ILOVEYOUTOO" worm code to Wired last week as a demonstration of how to
> script a variant of a virus. "
>
> Maybe just as a suggestion newswired staff should actully read articles they
> take information from, just an idea.
>
> -------------------------------------------------------
> Mark Arena                         marena () iinet net au
>  -------------------------------------------------------
>
>
>
>
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