WHMurray@DOCKMASTER.NCSC.MIL (09/16/90)
I have had additional thoughts on this subject. Given the number of existing copies of Jerusalem B, I would likely give copy to almost anyone who asked for it. My giving a copy of such a succesful virus to overtly and patently to someone who asks for it, is not likely to have any substantial effect on the size of the population of such copies, regardless of how they dealt with it. I do not exercise any real control over Jerusalem B; it is out of control. On the other hand, suppose that I have the only copy of a virus. Then I have control. If I turn over one copy, I loose control. Thus, both who and what are relevant to the answer. William Hugh Murray, Executive Consultant, Information System Security 21 Locust Avenue, Suite 2D, New Canaan, Connecticut 06840 203 966 4769, WHMurray at DOCKMASTER.NCSC.MIL
DSB100@PSUVM.PSU.EDU (David Barr) (09/18/90)
WHMurray@DOCKMASTER.NCSC.MIL says: >Given the number of existing copies of Jerusalem B, I would likely >give copy to almost anyone who asked for it. My giving a copy of such >a succesful virus to overtly and patently to someone who asks for it, >is not likely to have any substantial effect on the size of the >population of such copies, regardless of how they dealt with it. What are the criteria of an 'out of control' virus? Should one take the same point of view with the common cold? "It's out of control so I don't care who I give it to?" >I do not exercise any real control over Jerusalem B; it is out of >control. Who's to say Jerusulam B in particular is out of control? Many viruses are contained in a relatively small geographic area. Spreading them around, no matter how prevalent in that one area, seems foolish to me. Last year, our labs were had an epidemic of WDEF (Mac), and we had cases for months, until all the user's disks were cleaned out. Now we've been going for months now with very few re-infections. What is once a 'common' virus can be a rare one in months, with the right detection software. / David Barr | Penn State CAC Student Consultant | DSB100@psuvm.psu.edu | dsbarr@endor.cs.psu.edu | --- Trim that .sig!! --- | barr@barrstl.scol.pa.us