71435.1777@CompuServe.COM (Bob Bosen) (10/02/90)
woody@chinacat.Unicom.com writes: >...it seems to me that there is a class of viruses what we fortunately >have not seen yet. Application specific viruses. Consider a virus >written by someone who is POed at LOTUS for their recent court >victory.... This virus would infect and spread, but only corrupt >a program that had a lotus copyright on it. I seem to remember a note >about a Bulgarian virus that looked for an anti-viral product and >trashed it. Has anyone encountered a virus that exhibits the above >behavior? On a related subject, many of my clients are worried about viruses that target their specific operating environment. I am referring to sophisticated entities here, such as banks and defense contractors, that use computers for very important work involving millions of dollars worth of transactions or life-and-death process control. It is time we all acknowledged that in certain situations, viruses can cause damage that is MUCH greater than the value of disk files. Prudent businesses need to be concerned about "insider jobs" using viruses, trojan horses, logic bombs, etc. that target them specifically. These "inside jobs" may also target whatever defense mechanisms may be in place. I have been referring to these attacks as "surgical strikes". Perhaps a better term would be "targetted strikes". Although I am aware of organizations that have purchased sophisticated defense mechanisms to counter these kinds of attacks, I don't think knowledge of the insider attacks will ever be as widespread as our knowledge of more conventional viruses has become. This is because of the sensitive nature of the attacks and damages done. The victims of these surgical strikes handle them internally and secretly. - -Bob Bosen- Enigma Logic Tel: (415) 827-5707 FAX: (415) 827-2593 CompuServe: 71435,1777 Internet: 71435.1777@compuserve.com