VIRUS-L Digest Friday, 19 Jan 1990 Volume 3 : Issue 16 Today's Topics: Re: Internet Worm Creator stands trial Re: Internet worm writer stands trial BitNet *can* FTP now..... Internet Worm Trial New files (PC) Re: Ethical Judgement of the Internet Worm VIRUS-L is a moderated, digested mail forum for discussing computer virus issues; comp.virus is a non-digested Usenet counterpart. Discussions are not limited to any one hardware/software platform - diversity is welcomed. Contributions should be relevant, concise, polite, etc., and sent to VIRUS-L@IBM1.CC.LEHIGH.EDU (that's LEHIIBM1.BITNET for BITNET folks). Information on accessing anti-virus, document, and back-issue archives is distributed periodically on the list. Administrative mail (comments, suggestions, and so forth) should be sent to me at: krvw@SEI.CMU.EDU. - Ken van Wyk --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 19 Jan 90 01:14:53 +0000 From: munnari!mullian.ee.mu.oz.au!gja@uunet.UU.NET (Inspector Gadget) Subject: Re: Internet Worm Creator stands trial COS20001@UFRJ.BITNET (Geraldo Xexeo) writes: >I suppose that all the computer community have already judged the >worm creator in discussions around the world, so it is fair >to make a jury of "non-computer" people. > >My point is, this trial don't eliminates the necessity of a >ethical judgement. Maybe what he did is not a crime, but is clearly >a violation of ethical aspects of computer use. Virtually any person accused of crimes that have been given wide publicity will find a jury with its opinions formed _prior_ to the court case. "Non-computer people" would have also been exposed to the media hype surrounding the Internet Worm, but exposed to rather less well informed comment than "computer people". It is _not_ "fair" to have a jury of computer illiterates on the simple grounds that they have less chance of seeing through the rubbish thrown up by either side. The whole issue of what consitutes an 'ethical' use of computers is thorny enough as it is. Just what sort of understanding of computer ethics do you expect a jury of "non-computer people" to have ? End result is that a whole swag of 'computer experts' have to be called in to give evidence about what is and isn't ethical behavious. In any case I've never known courts to be concerned about ethics, per se. The letter of the law (and its multiple possible intended meanings) are the deciding factors. Ultimately it comes down to the ability of the jurors to map laws made from a non-computer environment onto a computer environment and decide which ones the defendant has broken. I can't see any benefit in having computer illiterates doing this job. Grenville Armitage. "Only dead fish go with the flow" - someone else. To be arrogant you need to have opinions. Therefore these opinions are all mine, thank you very much. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 19 Jan 90 12:32:00 +0000 From: Todd Hooper Subject: Re: Internet worm writer stands trial damon@umbc2.umbc.edu (Damon Kelley; (RJE)) writes: > Mr. Morris is a student who was suspended from Cornell University > because of his actions. I would remind you that he _allegedly_ unleashed the Internet Worm. Innocent before proven otherwise and all that stuff, you know... > When I read the article that I got the above information from, > I was a bit shocked that the jurors were deliberately picked by the > U.S. Justice Department lawyers because didn't know *anything* about > computers. Would the jurors understand enough of the computer talk > thrown between defense and prosecutor to reach a truly informed > verdict? In Australia at least, this is standard procedure in trials. For example, let's say someone had been charged with stealing a sportscar from some executive type. The defence lawyers will try to 'stack' the jury by rejecting all jurors who may be executives or own sportscars or the like, in case they are biased towards the prosecutions case. > [bits deleted] > > Those lawyers better straighten up. Not all computer > enthusiasts practice regularly what Mr. Morris did, nor do they openly > encourage the wanton destruction of computer systems "for a kick." Again, I don't think the Internet Worm was intended to be malicious. From the reports I've read, the author had intended it to be a sort of 'advanced networking experiment' ;-). Granted, that isn't a valid excuse, but you can hardly paint a picture of Morris as a wanton vandal, destroying computers for a kick. - -- Todd Hooper Computing Centre Curtin University of Technology PSImail: psi%050529452300070::CHOOPER Western Australia ACSnet : CHOOPER@acad.cut.oz Bitnet : CHOOPER%acad.curtin.edu.au%munnari.oz@cunyvm.bitnet UUCP : {enea,mcvax,uunet,ubc-cs,ukc}!munnari!acad.curtin.edu.au!CHOOPER Phone : +61 9 351 7467 (24 hour messaging system) Fax +61 9 351 2673 ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 17 Jan 90 22:05:45 -0600 From: James Ford Subject: BitNet *can* FTP now..... SCANV55.ZIP and VSTOP54.ZIP are available via anonymous FTP from MIBSRV.MIB.ENG.UA.EDU (130.160.20.80) in the directory pub/ibm-antivirus. For those people who can *not* FTP, guess what! You can! And all for $1.99! Seriously, Bitnet nodes can request files from BITFTP@PUCC. The following text explains how to go about this process. *WARNING* It might be *real* slow if many requests are in queue (sp?). James Ford - JFORD1@UA1VM.BITNET, JFORD@MIBSRV.MIB.ENG.UA.EDU - -------------- Mailfile sent with HELP as the message text ---------------- [Ed. Due to its length, I've removed the help listing. However, to get your very own copy, send mail (or interactive message) to BITFTP@PUCC.BITNET. In the message, include the text: HELP ...and you'll get information mailed to you on how to use the BITFTP facility.] ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 19 Jan 90 08:11:53 -0500 From: Bridget Rutty Subject: Internet Worm Trial I believe most of the testimony is completed. Morris testified yesterday and said that he had written the worm so that it would spread through the network but that he had not intended it to hurt any of the computers. He attempted to get help from a friend who testified that he had suggested writing a second program to try to trap and destroy the first one. Morris decided not to because he thought that would make matters worse. To my mind he should be convicted. There was no purpose to the program other than spreading through the network and consuming resources. This is clearly unethical, and in the case of federal defense networks, criminal. How badly the computers were affected is only a matter of degree which probably should be taken into consideration for sentencing if he is convicted. What is interesting to me is that he spoke to two different groups on computer security, one of which was (I think) a government agency. This speech was videotaped and apparently is being used as evidence by both the prosecution and the defense! The defense lawyers want to introduce as evidence who attended the conference (or whatever) but the list of attendees is classified information. The video is not. This is all I have gleaned from a partial reading of last night's paper. I don't generally read the local papers as I don't have a very high opinion of them. I can't afford to spend vacation time attending the trial (much to my regret) so I can't give a blow by blow description. Sigh. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 19 Jan 90 10:28:53 -0600 From: James Ford Subject: New files (PC) The following files have been added to MIBSRV.MIB.ENG.UA.EDU (130.160.20.80): File Description received from - ----------- ----------- ------------- SCANV56.ZIP - Scan V56 (Homebase BBS) SCANRS56.ZIP - Scan V56 (tsr) (Homebase BBS) SHEZ51.ZIP - ZIP, ARC, LHZ shell which uses SCAN (Homebase BBS) CLEANP56.ZIP - Removes all known virii (Homebase BBS) VSTOP54.ZIP - Smaller/compact version of SCANRES (?) (Homebase BBS) Files are located in pub/ibm-antivirus. Users may upload files to pub/ibm-antivirus/00uploads. All files are scanned and then ZIPed. PKZ102.EXE (self-extracting (total) ZIP package) is available in pub and pub/ibm-antivirus - ---------- James Ford - JFORD1@UA1VM.BITNET, JFORD@MIBSRV.MIB.ENG.UA.EDU University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa. ------------------------------ Date: 19 Jan 90 17:08:58 +0000 From: Irving Chidsey Subject: Re: Ethical Judgement of the Internet Worm WHMurray@DOCKMASTER.ARPA writes: ------------------------------ End of VIRUS-L Digest ********************* Downloaded From P-80 International Information Systems 304-744-2253