davidbrierley@lynx.northeastern.edu (06/01/90)
I posted Jim Vavrina's posting regarding the Military Virus story (Virus-L Volume: 3 Issue: 93) to the RISKS forum (Volume 9 Number 92), where the matter was being discussed as well. In the following issue of RISKS (Volume: 9 Number: 93) Rory J. O'Connor of the San Jose Mercury News, the author of the article that started the discussion, posted his response to Mr. Vavrina. That response, excerpted from RISKS 9.93, follows: ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Reply-to: risks@CSL.SRI.com RISKS-LIST: RISKS-FORUM Digest Monday 21 May 1990 Volume 9 : Issue 93 ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 20 May 90 14:25:39 PDT From: rjoconnor@cdp.uucp (Rory J. O'Connor) Subject: Military Computer Virus Contract (RISKS-9.92) I'm the reporter at the San Jose Mercury News who wrote the story on the Army's SBIR proposal regarding computer viruses. I feel I must respond to the charge made by Mr. Jim Vavrina of the Army Information Systems Software Center that I mis-identified myself while researching the story. That assertion is false. At all times, as is standard practice among professional journalists, I made it clear to everyone I called or interviewed that I was a newspaper reporter working on a story about this proposal. When I reached a woman named Joyce Crisci at Ft. Monmouth, NJ, who identified herself as the project administrator, I identified myself as a reporter. When she attempted to tell me how to apply for the available funds, I felt she might have failed to understand that, so I again told her I was a reporter working on a story for my newspaper. She then answered most of my questions, but made it clear she would not discuss any technical details nor provide me with the names of the engineers who had written the project. The reason, she said, was that if such information appeared in my story, it could prejudice the bidding process. Indeed, at the conclusion of our interview, she verified the spelling of her name and gave me her (rather complicated) mailing address and requested I send her a copy of the article when it appeared in the newspaper. I'm sorry Mr. Vavrina never called me to ask my side of the story about this interview. If Mr. Vavrina thinks my story about the virus was in some way factually incorrect, or did not fully describe the Army's project or reasoning, I'd be happy to talk to him about it. I can be reached at (408) 920-5019, or at MCI Mail mailbox 361-2192, or at the San Jose Mercury News, 750 Ridder Park Drive, San Jose, CA 95190. Anyone else who would like to discuss this story, or the topic of computer viruses in general, may also contact me there. Rory J. O'Connor, Computing Editor, San Jose Mercury News ------------------------------