93-1
***Note: this is an OCR of a scan of a fax, so please excause the errors.

  1. This marks the beginning of the third calendar year of this informal  mail
  group. I have added a seguence number at this edition (93-1) simply to help  me
  keep track of where I ain and  where  I  may  be  beaded.  As  a  reminder,  there  are
  no  restrictions  on  further  redistribution  of  the  update&.  Comments   and/or
  different opinions are solicited.

  2. From the  January  1993  edition  of  "Communications  of  the  ACM"  one  finds  this
  Newstrack item!  "An investigation into misuses of the Los Angeles Police
  Department computer system by one empl.oyee unearthed more worms than
  anticipated.  Records  now  indicate  that  since  1989  dozens  of  LA'PD  employees
  have used  its  computers  for  personal  reasons  such  as  checking  the  backgrounds
  of their baby sitters or housekeepers.      In fact, over 45 employees had  been
  disciplined  with  oral  reprimands  or  two-day   suspensions.   Lawyers   submitted
  evidence of rampant unauthorized computer use to appeal a hefty 10-day
  suspension  of  one  of  the  department's  permit  processors  who  was  nabbed  using
  the computer to obtain confidential information on, among others, Arnold
  Schwarzenegger.  It didn't work; he did the time."

  3.  Updates to the product test index and to the list of infections in
  commercial/government  software  have  been  distributed.  The   promised   revision   to
  the SAM product  test  has  been  delayed  because  one  of  the  three  distribution
  disks was defective. The  holiday  schedule  did  not  allow  me  to  complete  as  much
  as  I  had  planned.  Evaluations  of  VirusBuster  (MB-DOS)  and  Gatekeeper  (MAC)  are
  currently my priorities.

  4. A new book  should  be  at  your  dealers  entitled  "The  Computer  Virus  Desk
  Reference:  1992  Edition"  (ISBN  1-55623-755-3).  The  author  is   Christopher   V.
  Feudo, who is a LTC in the U.S.  Army  and  received  his  P'hD  in  computer  science
  from George Washington University.      I received  a  complimentary  copy  because  LTC
  Feudo incorporated a few of my reviews into the book.       The  work  incorporates
  into one "desk"  reference  a  large  amount  of  material  available  from  a  variety
  of sources, such  as  Robert  Blade,  Klaus  Brunnstein,  Dr.  John  Norstad,  etc.
  As in any  endeavor  such  as  this  there  is  naturally  a  delay  between  compiling
  viaterial and the actual publicalion dat:e.  So it does appear that some
  information may have "aged".

  5. The National Computer Security Association will hold its 2nd Virus
  Prevention  Conference  and  Exhibition  in  San  Francisco,  February  11-12   1993.
  There  will  also  be  pre-conference  tutorials  on  Information  Systems   Security
  (8-10) and on Computer Viruses  (10).  For  mare  informatiion  you  may  contact
  717-258-1816 or FAX 717-243-8642.

  6.  The  MIS  Training  Institute  has  released  its  Computer  Security  Three-Day
  Seminar  Schedule  for  1993.  The  dates  and  locations  follows;  (a)   March   15-17,
  Washington, DC;  (b)  May  12-14,  Boston,  MA;  (c)  July  26-28,  San  Francisco,  CA;
  (d)  September  20-22,  Chicago,  IL;  and  (e)  December  6-8,  Orlando,   FL.   The
  seminar leader is  once  again  Dr.  Sanford  Sherizen.  For  more  information  one
  may contact 508-879-7999 or FAX 508-872-1153.