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From: Anthony Appleyard <XPUM04@prime-a.central-services.umist.ac.uk>
To: KRVW <@NSFnet-Relay.AC.UK:KRVW@sei.cmu.edu>
Date:         Tue, 12 Jun 90 11:10:44 BST 
Message-Id:   <$TGVTCZHTCBWK at UMPA>
Subject:      Virus-L vol 0 issue #0825



Virus-L Digest Thu, 25 Aug 88, Volume 0 : Issue #0825

Today's Topics

Dup Mails
Re: Hard Disks
Safeguard and SUG
RE: Safeguard and SUG
Re: Safeguard and SUG
Re: Safeguard and SUG
SUG
Re: Safeguard and SUG
Re: The First Virus
SUG
RE: a new virus:
Re: Softguard

------------------------------

Date:         Thu, 25 Aug 88 09:27:00 H
Reply-To:     Virus Discussion List <VIRUS-L@LEHIIBM1>
Sender:       Virus Discussion List <VIRUS-L@LEHIIBM1>
From:         Living on a Prayer <WONGKOKH@NUSDISCS>
Subject:      Dup Mails

        How about receiving the same mail 5 times !!?? And IBMPC-L digest
is no small file.  This is really very unhealth for the net.

Marvin Wong                             !  Never assume for it will make
wongkokh@nusdiscs                       !  an ASS out of U and ME
csc30001@nusvm                          !
National University of Singapore        !
Department of Information Systems and Computer Science

--------------------

Date:         Thu, 25 Aug 88 08:23:18 EDT
Reply-To:     Virus Discussion List <VIRUS-L@LEHIIBM1>
Sender:       Virus Discussion List <VIRUS-L@LEHIIBM1>
From:         Ken van Wyk <luken@SPOT.CC.LEHIGH.EDU>
Subject:      Re: Hard Disks
In-Reply-To:  Your message of Wed, 24 Aug 88 13:42:34 CST

> If you formatted your hard
> disk into several partitions, and had one partition just for COMMAND.COM,
> IBMBIOS.COM, IBMDOS.COM, CONFIG.SYS, etc...., how effective would that be
> in slowing down the spread of virii?

Not very effective at all, by itself.  There is at least one
anti-virus device which can (hardware) write protect a range of
cylinders on your hard disk (i.e., a partition).  It would definitely
reduce the threat of a virus spreading if you could put your system
files (and as many executables, overlays, etc.) on a write protected
device like that.  The problem is that it's not to convenient to use,
and you should really understand what you're doing while you have the
disk not write-protected.  That is, while installing software on that
partition, you're as open as ever to virus contamination.

>    If you ran MAPMEM (which shows hooked vectors), could you see what vectors
> a virus might have hooked for itself?  Could you then free up that portion by
> using RELEASE on it?  (assuming you ran MARK first.....)

Sometimes.  MAPMEM, by itself, only reports the most recently run
program that is taking any one interrupt vector.  That is, if two
programs took INT 13H, then only the second one run would be reported.
There is an accompanying (I think in the same package, by TurboPower
Software) program called WATCH which causes MAPMEM to show all
programs which have taken any particular interrupt.  As long as a
virus loads *AFTER* WATCH, then it should show any interrupts in use.
The problem, however, comes in when a virus, such as a boot sector
virus, is loaded before anything else.  You won't be able to see any
of the interrupts that they're using with tools like MAPMEM.

MAPMEM, WATCH, MARK, RELEASE, and others that I can't remember the
names of, are public domain programs released by TurboPower Software.
They're written in Turbo Pascal and include source code.  Good stuff.

Ken



Kenneth R. van Wyk                    Mom:    *RISE AND SHINE, CALVIN!*
User Services Senior Consultant       Calvin: Mbbgglkjsfdfy!
Lehigh University Computing Center    Mom:    The early bird catches the worm!
Internet: <luken@Spot.CC.Lehigh.EDU>  Calvin: Great incentive!
BITNET:   <LUKEN@LEHIIBM1>

--------------------

Date:         Thu, 25 Aug 88 04:00:41 EDT
Reply-To:     Virus Discussion List <VIRUS-L@LEHIIBM1>
Sender:       Virus Discussion List <VIRUS-L@LEHIIBM1>
From:         Steve <XRAYSROK@SBCCVM>
Subject:      Safeguard and SUG

Frank San Miguel related an incident involving a "virus" called SUG that
scrambles FAT tables and generally destroys data.  This is no reflection
on Frank, but having never heard this before it seems hard to believe
that a company could be so irresponsible.  If it's true I wonder if it's
a real virus (that propagates) or just a nasty program that reformats
disks.  Whether it propagates or not, it's clear that the program has no
way of discriminating between someone simply trying to make a backup copy
of a program (or perhaps trying to install it on a hard disk) and someone
trying to make pirate copies of a disk.  In any case, it would appear
that the company has gone out on a limb by "taking the law into its own
hands" rather than pursuing justice through legal channels.  Even if it
is justified in trying to protect its software, and even if it argues
that legal channels are ineffective, that is no excuse for criminal
action (releasing a malicious and destructive program).  I would think
that such a company would be no more justified than a mob lynching
criminal.  The criminal may deserve to die, but it should be handled
through proper channels and the punishment must befit the crime, as
determined by law.

- ------------------------------------------------------------------------
Steven C. Woronick     |   An extrapolation of its present rate of
Physics Dept.          |   growth reveals that in the not too distant
SUNY @ Stony Brook     |   future, Physical Review will fill bookshelves
Stony Brook, NY 11794  |   at a speed exceeding that of light.  This
                       |   is not forbidden by relativity, since no
516-632-8133           |   information is being conveyed.

--------------------

Date:         Thu, 25 Aug 88 10:00:00 EST
Reply-To:     Virus Discussion List <VIRUS-L@LEHIIBM1>
Sender:       Virus Discussion List <VIRUS-L@LEHIIBM1>
From:         ZDABADE@VAX1.CC.LEHIGH.EDU
Subject:      RE: Safeguard and SUG

I made reference to the SUG incident in a previous message. I have some
code and an article about this on a disk somewhere, and as soon as I
find it, I will share it with you.  Safeguard was traced to the situation
because they had their company name and phone number in their code. (I don't
think it was a virus, per se, that they released, but more of a trojan horse.)

David


/-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-\
|    From:  David A. Bader, Studentis Maximus                             |
|                                                                         |
|    DAB3@LEHIGH                       SloNet: 1402 Lorain Avenue         |
|    ZDABADE@VAX1.CC.LEHIGH.EDU                Bethlehem, Pa.  18018      |
|    HACK!DAB@SCARECROW.CSEE.LEHIGH.EDU                                   |
|                                                                         |
|    SchoolNet: Box 914,               -On a mostly harmless              |
|            Lehigh University,         blue green planet...              |
|          Bethlehem, Pa.  18015       -And loving it!                    |
\________________________________________________________________________/

--------------------

Date:         Thu, 25 Aug 88 10:05:50 EDT
Reply-To:     Virus Discussion List <VIRUS-L@LEHIIBM1>
Sender:       Virus Discussion List <VIRUS-L@LEHIIBM1>
From:         Jim <JMARKS@GTRI01>
Subject:      Re: Safeguard and SUG
In-Reply-To:  Message of Thu, 25 Aug 88 04:00:41 EDT from <XRAYSROK@SBCCVM>

I have a feeling that the program distributed by Softgard (if the report
is true) is a Trojan Horse rather than a virus.  Since most users will have
to reformat after having their FAT's scrambled, I'm not sure the program
could propagate.  In any case, the company would not NEED to have the program
propagate to accomplish their (assumed) ends.

Even if it doesn't propagate, I agree that the practice is reprehensible.
While I don't condone pirating of software, users should be able to make
backups, which some copy protection schemes don't provide for.  I've never
particularly cared for copy-protected software anyway.

Jim Marks

--------------------

Date:         Thu, 25 Aug 88 09:25:01 CDT
Reply-To:     Virus Discussion List <VIRUS-L@LEHIIBM1>
Sender:       Virus Discussion List <VIRUS-L@LEHIIBM1>
From:         Len Levine <len@EVAX.MILW.WISC.EDU>
Subject:      Re: Safeguard and SUG
In-Reply-To:  Message from "Steve" of Aug 25, 88 at 4:00 am

>Frank San Miguel related an incident involving a "virus" called SUG that
>scrambles FAT tables and generally destroys data.  This is no reflection
>on Frank, but having never heard this before it seems hard to believe
>that a company could be so irresponsible.  If it's true I wonder if it's
>a real virus (that propagates) or just a nasty program that reformats
>disks.  Whether it propagates or not, it's clear that the program has no
>way of discriminating between someone simply trying to make a backup copy
>of a program (or perhaps trying to install it on a hard disk) and someone

In Wisconsin, as in other states, a person may shoot to kill if and
only if s/he feels that a life is threatened.  (A reasonable person
test is often invoked.)  It is not permitted to do so to protect only
property.  That is to say, the response must be appropriate to the
threat and the invoker of the response must take responsibility for
his or her action.

If a company does put out such a package that does harm to a user's
computer, and if the harm is way out of bound compared to what is
being protected, the company is due to be sued, either by a felon,
using the program to steal, or, more to the point, by an innocent
bystander who may well be using the program in a legal way, or who may
be merely damaged by some uninteded side effect.

In fact, if I was aware of such a problem with a commercial package,
if I felt that a vendor was prepared to risk my computer for his
protection, I would avoid the legal packages that the vendor sold,
believing that there were some other dirty tricks hidden in the
woodwork that had not bitten anyone yet.

+ - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - +
| Leonard P. Levine                  e-mail len@evax.milw.wisc.edu    |
| Professor, Computer Science                Office (414) 229-5170    |
| University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee          Home   (414) 962-4719    |
| Milwaukee, WI 53201 U. S. A.               Modem  (414) 962-6228    |
+ - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - +

--------------------

Date:         Thu, 25 Aug 88 10:32:24 EDT
Reply-To:     Virus Discussion List <VIRUS-L@LEHIIBM1>
Sender:       Virus Discussion List <VIRUS-L@LEHIIBM1>
From:         David.Slonosky@QUEENSU.CA
Subject:      SUG
In-Reply-To:  <QUCDN.X400GATE:LUqvSG9H*>

This is one of the programs documented in the "Dirty Dozen". When is the
case coming to court?

David Slonosky/QueensU/CA,"",CA       |         Know thyself?            |
<SLONOSKY@QUCDN>                      |  If I knew myself, I'd run away. |

--------------------

Date:         Thu, 25 Aug 88 09:28:48 CDT
Reply-To:     Virus Discussion List <VIRUS-L@LEHIIBM1>
Sender:       Virus Discussion List <VIRUS-L@LEHIIBM1>
From:         Len Levine <len@EVAX.MILW.WISC.EDU>
Subject:      Re: Safeguard and SUG
In-Reply-To:  Message from "VIRUS-L@LEHIIBM1.BitNet" of Aug 25, 88 at 10:00 am

>I made reference to the SUG incident in a previous message. I have some
>code and an article about this on a disk somewhere, and as soon as I
>find it, I will share it with you.  Safeguard was traced to the situation
>because they had their company name and phone number in their code. (I don't
>think it was a virus, per se, that they released, but more of a trojan horse.)
>
>David
>

Let's watch this.  Should I assume that any electronic media message
with someone's name and address in it was written by them?  I don't
think so.

+ - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - +
| Ronald Regan                       e-mail len@evax.milw.wisc.edu    |
| Professor, Computer Science                Office (414) 229-5170    |
| University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee          Home   (414) 962-4719    |
| Milwaukee, WI 53201 U. S. A.               Modem  (414) 962-6228    |
+ - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - +

--------------------

Date:         Thu, 25 Aug 88 10:42:00 EDT
Reply-To:     Virus Discussion List <VIRUS-L@LEHIIBM1>
Sender:       Virus Discussion List <VIRUS-L@LEHIIBM1>
From:         WHMurray@DOCKMASTER.ARPA
Subject:      Re: The First Virus
In-Reply-To:  Message of 19 Aug 88 10:39 EDT from "Loren K Keim -- Lehigh
              University"

Loren, I am afraid that I cannot document it, and it may even have been
apocryphal.  (I was not a user of the net then.)  But the first virus
that I can recall hearing about was named the "phantom," and was said to
have appeared in the arpanet in the very early seventies.  After all
these years I can no longer distinguish in my memeory between those
characteristics that were attributed to the phantom and those that were
simply discussed in its context.

I can recall that I was not surprised at the time and that I was
surprised at FC's assertion that his experiment was the first.  Of
course that is absurd on its face since "The Adolescence of P1" was
published in the early 70's.  It described "trapdoors," "Trojan Horses,"
and viruses in excruciating and withering detail.  These were the
"kernel of truth" on which the author hung his fantasy.

Merle Miller quotes Harry Truman: "The only thing new in the world is
the history you don't know."

William Hugh Murray, Fellow, Information System Security, Ernst & Whinney
2000 National City Center Cleveland, Ohio 44114
21 Locust Avenue, Suite 2D, New Canaan, Connecticut 06840

--------------------

Date:         Thu, 25 Aug 88 11:24:10 EDT
Reply-To:     Virus Discussion List <VIRUS-L@LEHIIBM1>
Sender:       Virus Discussion List <VIRUS-L@LEHIIBM1>
From:         "David A. Bader" <DAB3@LEHIGH>
Subject:      SUG

When I said that the SUG affair was traced back to softguard through
some data in the code, I was not implying that this was the sole
reason. I have an article explaining this, but since I am in the middle
of packing up and moving rooms for college, I won't be able to find the
reference until next monday or so. But when I do, I will post it for
your information.

David Bader

--------------------

Date:         Thu, 25 Aug 88 12:11:00 CST
Reply-To:     Virus Discussion List <VIRUS-L@LEHIIBM1>
Sender:       Virus Discussion List <VIRUS-L@LEHIIBM1>
From:         "Dr. Howard J. Ramagli" <HRAMAGLI@UTMEM1>
Subject:      RE: a new virus:

                   I N T E R O F F I C E   M E M O R A N D U M

                                        Date:      25-Aug-1988 12:07pm CST
                                        From:      Dr. Howard J. Ramagli
                                                   HRAMAGLI
                                        Dept:      Info. Systems & Services
                                        Tel No:    (901) 528-6392

TO:  Remote GMAIL User                    ( _GMAIL%VIRUS-L@LEHIIBM1 )

Subject: RE: a new virus:

    A curious note on this new Mac Virus.  The file spelling (Bostb be
    Evill) reminds me of the old Microsoft file protection scheme for
    either Multiplan or Microsoft File.

    Hope this is of some help.

    Howard

  ************************************************************************
  *                                                                      *
  *  Dr. Howard J. Ramagli                                               *
  *  BITNET Info Representative                                          *
  *  Director, Technology Support Services                               *
  *  Biomedical Information Transfer (BIT) Center                        *
  *  University of Tennessee, Memphis, 877 Madison, Memphis, TN 38163    *
  *  (901) 528-5024                                                      *
  *  HRAMAGLI@UTMEM1.BITNET      U0282 on AppleLink                      *
  *                                                                      *
  ************************************************************************

--------------------

Date:         Thu, 25 Aug 88 19:04:00 EST
Reply-To:     Virus Discussion List <VIRUS-L@LEHIIBM1>
Sender:       Virus Discussion List <VIRUS-L@LEHIIBM1>
From:         ZDABADE@VAX1.CC.LEHIGH.EDU
Subject:      Re: Softguard

I sorted through a thousand disks today and finally found the document
on Softguard that I was referring to (under some cryptic filename!).
Anyway, here is the memo, and enjoy!

- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Mark Garvin -- Xymetric Productions -- New York City             3-7-87

    I guess I have stirred some interest with my recent messages to BBS's
    concerning Trojan horse programs.  I have decided to write the following
    file in the interest of warning others and hopefully finding clues to the
    origin of the programs.

    I have been operating a Priam 60 Meg hard disk on my AT for the past two
    years with good results.  About four months ago, I encountered a Trojan
    horse program called HI-Q.COM which corrupted the FAT table on the disk.
    I lost access to the entire D: drive and the files and boot sectors on
    the C: drive were so badly damaged that I had to reformat the drive.
    Since there was nothing to be lost by trying the program again, I decided
    to confirm that HI-Q.COM was indeed the culprit.  I ran a couple of the
    popular Trojan finders on the file first:  Nothing.  Thinking perhaps I
    was mistaken, I ran HI-Q under an INT13-trapper.  No INT 13's were found
    and HI-Q ran normally.  Upon rebooting the system, I found the same boot-
    sector errors, and CHKDSK again reported numerous cross-links, etc.  I
    reformatted the drive and ran media checks to make sure the Priam was
    sound.   After checking several other programs (I did NOT run the Trojan-
    testers or INT13-trapper again in case those were perhaps Trojan), I ran
    HI-Q.COM for the third time.  Same results.  This is enough for me: I'm
    convinced.

    Up until this point, I had heard of Trojan horses, but honestly doubted
    that there were actually competant computer programmers around who were
    wierd enough to write such a thing.  I should also note that there is a
    program called HI-Q.EXE which has been tested by some boards, and is
    supposedly NOT a Trojan.  I'm not going to try it on my hard disk system.
    The HI-Q.COM program may not have even been an intentional Trojan -- I'm
    willing to keep an open mind on the subject.  Maybe it was incompetent
    programming, or perhaps someone ran SPACEMAKER or a similar program on
    the .EXE file to convert it to a .COM file, and inadvertantly created a
    Trojan.

    OK -- that's one thing.. The next Trojan I ran was DEFINITELY intentional.
    I had reformatted my Priam after the previous incident, and I haven't
    allowed the mysterious HI-Q program back on the system.  However, I HAVE
    run numerous file-managers, etc. from local BBS's -- maybe I'm just a
    trusting individual, but I wasn't ready to give up on Public Domain or
    shareware software just yet.  Recently, the Priam starting giving me
    trouble again: crosslinked and lost files, and no boot.  I called Priam,
    hoping to get instructions for perhaps salvaging files on the D: drive,
    since the partition was destroyed.  Priam's tech guided me through a HEX/
    ASCII dump of the boot record via a trap-door in Priam's FDISK program.
    Needless to say, we were BOTH incredulous at the result.  Dis-believers
    should look closely at the HEX/ASCII dump below.  This was NOT retyped
    or altered in any way.  After booting from floppy, I redirected printer
    output to a disk file.  What you are looking at below is exactly what
    appeared on my screen after the crash.

____________________________________________________________________________


0 = Master Boot Record, 25 = Extended Volume Record
1 - 24 = Volume Boot Record

Enter number of record to display (0 - 25) : [   0]

  D   H   0  1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9  A  B  C  D  E  F 0123456789ABCDEF
  0/  0  EB 7D 53 4F 46 54 4C 6F 4B 2B 20 33 2E 30 0D 0A ..SOFTLoK+ 3.0..
 16/ 10  11 28 43 29 20 53 4F 46 54 47 55 41 52 44 0D 0A .(C) SOFTGUARD..
 32/ 20  53 59 53 54 45 4D 53 2C 20 49 4E 43 2E 20 0D 0A SYSTEMS, INC. ..
 48/ 30  32 38 34 30 20 53 74 20 54 68 6F 6D 61 73 0D 0A 2840 St Thomas..
 64/ 40  45 78 70 77 79 2C 20 73 74 65 20 32 30 31 0D 0A Expwy, ste 201..
 80/ 50  53 61 6E 74 61 20 43 6C 61 72 61 2C 20 20 0D 0A Santa Clara,  ..
 96/ 60  43 41 20 39 35 30 35 31 20 20 20 20 20 20 0D 0A CA 95051      ..
112/ 70  34 30 38 2D 39 37 30 2D 39 34 32 30 10 07 00 FA 408-970-9420....
128/ 80  8C C8 8E D0 BC 00 7C FB 8B F4 8E C0 8E D8 FC BF ......|.........
144/ 90  00 06 B9 00 01 F3 A5 EA D4 06 00 00 45 72 72 6F ............Erro
160/ A0  72 20 6C 6F 61 64 69 6E 67 20 6F 70 65 72 61 74 r loading operat
176/ B0  69 6E 67 20 73 79 73 74 65 6D 00 4D 69 73 73 69 ing system.Missi
192/ C0  6E 67 20 6F 70 65 72 61 74 69 6E 67 20 73 79 73 ng operating sys
208/ D0  74 65 6D 00 BE BE 07 B9 04 00 AC 3C 80 74 15 83 tem........<.t..
224/ E0  C6 0F E2 F6 CD 18 AC 0A C0 74 FE BB 07 00 B4 0E .........t......
240/ F0  CD 10 EB F2 4E 8B 14 8B 4C 02 BB 00 7C B8 11 02 ....N...L...|...

Press <Esc> to ABORT, any other key to continue .

0 = Master Boot Record, 25 = Extended Volume Record
1 - 24 = Volume Boot Record

_____________________________________________________________________________

   In the interest of justice, I would like to make the following obser-
   vations:

   1) The MAIN phone no. for SoftGuard systems is: 408-970-9240, NOT 9420.
      The no. listed above is not in use.  The message it gives IS the
      normal message for that area, even though it sounds like it is com-
      puter generated.  The phone co. says it is actually registered to
      Siliconix, a Silicon Valley chip-manufacturer, who probably has no
      interest in Public Domain software or BBS's.

   2) I called SoftGuard, and they gave me a Mr. Phelps-type message, disavow-
      ing any knowledge of any Trojan programs or of SOFTLok, etc. which they
      said is not an official product.  However, they have not returned my
      calls requesting additional information, and a request to speak to some-
      one knowledgable about their software protection techniques has not been
      answered.  This may mean either that the message was cooked up by some-
      one with a vendetta against SoftGuard (I don't know why!), or that Soft-
      Guard wants to be able to identify the source of the Trojan program by
      the information phoned in by irate people whose disks have just crashed.
      In my opinion, the juxtaposition of the phone no. digits could be caused
      by errors on the part of whoever wrote the Trojan program, whether it
      was within SoftGuard, or not.   After restoring the hard disk, I scanned
      every file on it, and "SoftGuard" did not appear anywhere.  The clever-
      ness in bit-shifting the ASCII digits, or otherwise disguising them, may
      also have resulted in the wrong phone no.

   3) I have not, and will not, install SoftGuard programs on my disks.  Also,
      I obviously do not have any reason to run any of the unprotect programs
      for SoftGuard, of which some are supposedly Trojans themselves (see
      below).  I have no idea of which file of the 2,000+ files on my system
      was the origin of the message.  As explained above, I have scanned them
      for ASCII text and I've come up with nothing so far.


   There are numerous warnings in circulation concerning SoftGuard Systems,
   manufacturers of the SuperLock copy-protection scheme.  They SUPPOSEDLY
   upload Trojan programs to BBS's either to try to get their own form of
   justice against those who try to crack their software, or because they
   are just bitter about the numerous SoftGuard/SuperLock unprotectors which
   are circulating on the BBS's.  Most of these Trojans have the name SUG..
   (Soft-Un-Guard) or something similar.  I did not originally believe that
   SoftGuard would be stupid enough to do such a thing.  After all, a lesson
   should have been learned by the example of Prolok (another copy-protect
   manufacturer), who claimed that their new software would destroy the hard
   disk of anyone who tried to mis-use it.  Most users, legitimate and other-
   wise, dropped them instantly, even though Prolok realized their grave
   error and retracted their previous advertising.  After all, who wants to
   have their hard disk destroyed by accidently inserting the wrong key disk?

   The SUG programs mentioned are reported to say something like: "Courtesy
   of SoftGuard Systems .. So sue us!" -- after trashing the hard disk.

   My feelings about possibly casting doubt on the integrity of SoftGuard ?
   They did NOT convince me that they were blameless, and if they cared, they
   would have returned my phone calls.  However, it MAY just be coincidence
   that a lot of the Trojan programs mention SoftGuard.

   Recommendations:

     Whether SoftGuard is at fault or not, they did not give me an adequate
     explanation of the rumors circulating about them, and they did not
     return my calls.  I would recommend that individuals and companies stay
     away from SoftGuard/SuperLock, or any other copy-protect program which
     writes hidden, strange information onto their hard disks.  Users of such
     copy-protected software should write or call the manufacturers and re-
     quest that the copy protection be discontinued.  Explain to them that
     pirates will always crack copy-protection, and that only the legitimate
     users suffer from its use.  If you work for a company that uses copy-
     protected software, why not get a print-out of this file and show it to
     the person in charge of purchasing software?

     If you DO have a hard disk crash, try to recover the boot-record on the
     disk before just giving up and reformatting.  You may find something
     similar to the above.  The manufacturer or vendor of your hard disk may
     be able to steer you through the proper procedure for doing this.

     Read this month's (March 1987) issue of 'Computer Language' for more
     information on Trojan horse programs.  The article recommends contacting
     Eric Newhouse at THE CREST BBS regarding trojan horse programs.  If you
     DO run into one, keep a copy of the file, and have a knowledgable BBS-
     user send it, and an explanation to Eric's BBS at 213-471-2518.  DO NOT
     SEND THE FILE WITH ITS ORIGINAL NAME.  The file name should be changed
     to something NOT ending in .EXE or .COM (how about .TRJ), and it should
     be sent to the attention of the SYSOP.  This is usually done by waiting
     for the prompt to enter the file description, and starting the descrip-
     tion with '/'.  Afterwards, also leave a comment to SYSOP which states
     the nature, and description of the file.  In other words, don't inadver-
     tantly upload a Trojan program which could victimize others.

     Watch out for some of the so-called Trojan testers.  The majority of
     these are legitimate, but a few of them are actually Trojans themselves.
     Also, before jumping the gun and assuming a program is Trojan, check
     other possible sources for disk errors, etc.  Sometimes hard disk media
     just develops errors, and there ARE some programs circulating as 'jokes'
     which put a message up which says they are reformatting your drives, or
     even claim to be draining excess water out of your disk drives.  Most of
     the nasty Trojan programs don't cause their damage immediately.  They
     wait for the drive to fill up a bit, or they wait for a random time
     interval.  In the latter case described above, I suspected a file manager
     that I had just run.  It turns out that others have used the program with
     no ill effects.

     It seems to me that the future of PD software, as well as BBS systems
     is being threatened by this type of thing.  A concerted effort on the
     part of SYSOPS to correlate the names and origins of people who upload
     Trojan software may help to track them down.  Most BBS software keeps
     track of the names of people uploading software.  I doubt that Trojan
     writers are stupid enough to list their real names, but it's time that
     some ingenuity was used in putting a stop to this.

     I am a serious software developer, and I have taken some time off to
     write this message in the interest of helping other PD software users.
     Unfortunately, I don't have the time to coordinate any effort in analysis
     of Trojan programs and I cannot be contacted by phone (unlisted), but if
     you DO run into something similar, or if you have questions about any of
     the info presented here, leave me a personal message on any of the larger
     BBS's in New York City, and I will try to reply on the same board.

     PLEASE DO circulate this file.  It is important information for anyone
     running a BBS, or using Public Domain or SoftGuard/SuperLock software.


- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------

/-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-\
|    From:  David A. Bader, Studentis Maximus                             |
|                                                                         |
|    DAB3@LEHIGH                       SloNet: 1402 Lorain Avenue         |
|    ZDABADE@VAX1.CC.LEHIGH.EDU                Bethlehem, Pa.  18018      |
|    HACK!DAB@SCARECROW.CSEE.LEHIGH.EDU                                   |
|                                                                         |
|    SchoolNet: Box 914,               -On a mostly harmless              |
|            Lehigh University,         blue green planet...              |
|          Bethlehem, Pa.  18015       -And loving it!                    |
\________________________________________________________________________/


--------------------

*** end of Virus-L issue ***
