sale5312@fredonia.UUCP (Marty Saletta) (05/21/88)
*please don't panic!!* I'm just wondering if there was an XE virus going around. i own an ST and 3 8-bits (two 400s (one 48K) and a 600) and was wondering this because i see so much about the ST virus and nothing of an 8 bit one. i've never seen a "virus killer" program for the 8 bitters either. thanks in advance for any info! (hopefully positive) -- Marty Saletta @ Fredonia,NY------------------------------------------------ 18/9/2012 T.V. FLASH ON ALL DIAL-A-PROGRAM SERVICES This is an announcement from Genetic Control: "It is my sad duty to inform you of a 4ft. restriction on humanoid height."
gdtltr@vax1.acs.udel.EDU (Gary D Duzan) (05/21/88)
In article <959@fredonia.UUCP> sale5312@fredonia.UUCP (Marty Saletta) writes: > > *please don't panic!!* > *and don't forget your towel* > I'm just wondering if there was an XE virus going around. i own > an ST and 3 8-bits (two 400s (one 48K) and a 600) and was wondering > this because i see so much about the ST virus and nothing of an 8 bit > one. i've never seen a "virus killer" program for the 8 bitters > either. > I have never seen a virus for the Atari 8-bits. I have thought about it before, and I think it would be fairly difficult to implement. One obstacle is the fact that there are so many DOS's and disk formats. A virus might be able to hide in sector 720 on a DOS 2.0s disk, but the same scheme would probably not work on a DOS 2.5 disk and would certainly not work with SpartaDOS, MyDOS, and all the other odd DOS's out there. Another obstacle is the noisy I/O. Even if a virus is created, the Noisy I/O allows an experienced user to know what is going. For example, if you open a file for read and hear the low clicks, you know something odd is going on. Creating an 8 bit virus would be an interesting project. Maybe someone could make a benign one that does something like print "Bang! You're dead!" after it has been copied X times. Gary Duzan Time Lord Third Regeneration Atari ENthusiast Extreme > thanks in advance for any info! (hopefully positive) > > >-- >Marty Saletta @ Fredonia,NY------------------------------------------------ >18/9/2012 T.V. FLASH ON ALL DIAL-A-PROGRAM SERVICES >This is an announcement from Genetic Control: >"It is my sad duty to inform you of a 4ft. restriction on humanoid height."
cfchiesa@bsu-cs.UUCP (Christopher Chiesa) (05/23/88)
I'd be surprised if there were an Atari virus, for most of the reasons al-
ready mentioned here; additionally, I find that most of the programs I use
on a regular basis don't like to work right if the program I ran before them
has left anything in memory, therefore I have to turn the computer off and
back on just to go from one program to another. I'd like to see a virus sur-
vive THAT! Besides, if nothing else, there just isn't a lot of memory avail-
able for a virus, even if one did get written! On the other hand, you could
write a SIMPLE one that could be appended onto other, legitimate program files
and go in and do nasty things... Would be hard for it to propagate, though,
what with memory restrictions, constraints on system pointers, cycle-counting
constraints on DLIs, VBIs, or any other attempted "behind-the-scenes" manipu-
lations, the "noisy bus" I/O, and so on and so forth....
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