Hacker Rails Against New Worm

[William Knowles <wk () C4I ORG>]

http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,36477,00.html

by Michelle Finley
4:35 p.m. May. 19, 2000 PDT

A computer hacker from Australia has the sneaking suspicion that
someone copied key aspects of a nondestructive worm he circulated last
week, and turned it into the "NewLove" virus that panicked, among
others, the FBI and Janet Reno.

But even if this week's virus scare didn't use the source of his
"ILOVEYOUTOO" worm, "Valiant" thinks the real culprits are naive,
callow computer users who don't know enough not to open unsolicited
email attachments.

Also earning villain points from Valiant are media outlets that wildly
jump on any information that contains the word "virus."

"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.

He said "NewLove" bears a "remarkable resemblance" to his own worm.

Valiant's virus had no "payload," so it was unable to damage computer
systems. Valiant said he released it only to track the potential
damage that might be caused by another worm outbreak, after people had
been warned not to open attachments in the wake of the "Love Bug"
worm.

He notes that .vbs coding, the method used in the latest rash of worm
attacks, is "very open source" and it's easy to modify a benign script
into one that delivers a nasty bug.

"I've never written a malicious virus; however, I have written up a
lot of small virii in the early hours of the morning simply to trace
how many stupid users have default settings of IRC clients, email
clients, and other such features of standard Microsoft operating
systems," he wrote in an email.

Valiant believes that "NewLove" is "just another big slap in the face
to the moron computer users out there."

He thinks that the recent outbreak of viruses is directly related to
the "sickening amount" of attention viruses are getting in the media,
and the "fact that every user out there likes to think they're
computer geniuses, therefore the field of computer professionals has
dwindled and now we have an IT industry run by MS weenies with not a
clue about any other platform."

He points to his own business, Raptor Web Services as an example of
non-pros stepping on toes, saying that "school kids" can use FrontPage
and pose as professionals.

"Then these unprofessionals ... jump in and attempt to spread the FUD
(Fear, Uncertainly, Despair) that is behind most IT decisions these
days."

Releasing a malicious virus is a "relatively lame" thing to do,
Valiant said.

"It's the fastest way to get the world's attention to a degree that
evidence will be made available to the people who can put you away for
a long time. Damaging (other people's computers) gets you locked in a
cell with a 300-pound guy named Mary."


*-------------------------------------------------*
"Communications without intelligence is noise;
Intelligence without communications is irrelevant."
Gen. Alfred. M. Gray, USMC
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