davidf@CS.HW.AC.UK (David.J.Ferbrache) (07/27/89)
Message forwarded for BCVRC,
Virus Research Centres.
There is a need for research centres in the computer virus field, organised
on a national or sub-national basis and with international links with other
such centres. These centres will:
Collect and catalogue viruses.
Disassemble and otherwise analyze viruses.
Disseminate information and, where appropriate, viruses and
disassemblies to other researchers nationally.
Disseminate information, viruses and disassemblies to researchers at
other centres internationally.
Disseminate information from other centres where appropriate.
Produce various support programs.
It is recognised that many of the researchers associated with these centres
will be writing anti-virus software commercially, but this should not
preclude the free exchange of such information.
Each centre must make its own decisions about funding and charges nationally,
but it is not expected that centres will charge other centres.
A complex international structure is unnecessary, all that is needed is that
each centre:
Recognise other centres.
Respond positively to requests for information and samples from other
centres.
Take the initiative in distributing samples to other centres when new
viruses or variations appear.
Any individual or group who is interested in participating, either nationally
or internationally, and who feels qualified to do so, is invited to contact
the author.
The British Computer Virus Research Centre.
It was hoped that CoTRA (the Computer Threat Research Association) would
fulfil the role as outlined above for Britain. This now seems unlikely and
undesirable for a number of reasons which would be out of place in this
document.
Accordingly the British Computer Virus Research Centre has been founded. We
intend to specialise in high quality virus disassemblies, and in virus
simulation programs.
The simulation programs make it possible to demonstrate the non-infective
features of viruses without either infecting a machine or giving a virus to a
possibly inexperienced user.
Our aim will be to produce disassemblies which cannot be improved upon. In
practical terms this is probably impossible, and we will never accept that
any particular disassembly cannot be improved.
We will always be interested to see disassemblies done by other researchers,
but it is our practice to do our own disassembly first.
>From time to time we will issue descriptive lists of viruses in our
possession, and we welcome samples of viruses which are not on this lists, or
differ in any way. Such samples should ideally consist of an infected file
(for Parasitic viruses) or disk (for Boot viruses).
Joe Hirst
British Computer Virus Research Centre
12 Guildford Street Brighton
East Sussex BN1 3LS England
Telephone: Domestic 0273-26105
International +44-273-26105