CRYPT NEWSLETTER 27
September 1994

Editor: Urnst Kouch (George Smith, Ph.D.)
Media Critic: Mr. Badger (Andy Lopez)
INTERNET: 70743.1711@compuserve.com
or Urnst.Kouch@comsec.org
COMPUSERVE: 70743,1711
Crypt Newsletter BBS:  818.683.0854

[The Crypt Newsletter is a monthly electronic magazine
which features stories on computers, society, science
and technology.  Some satirical content included.]

IN THIS ISSUE:  Two strikes and software piracy in
Massachusetts . . . Mr. Badger, a present day Spengler . . .
GET SMARTER: Demystifying the National Reconnaissance
Office . . . REVIEWED: Tom Clancy's "Debt of Honor"
and "The UNIX-Haters Handbook," vomit bags included . . .
THEY'LL DO IT EVERY TIME: On stun batons, underwater
fuses and Michael Schrage's world of cyberpizza . . .



THE SPA, SOFTWARE PIRACY, TWO STRIKES AND
DAVEY JONES LOCKER

Massachusetts authorities are saying 43-year-old Richard D.
Kenadek may be the first computer bulletin board system
operator to be indicted for alleged federal copyright
infringement. According to Crypt Newsletter news records,
they appear not to have a good memory.

On the last day of August, the FBI raided the Millbury,
Massachusetts home of Richard D. Kenadek, arresting him
in connection with the alleged operation of a pirate
bulletin board system called Davey Jones Locker.
Charged with conspiracy and copyright infringement,
the man was also sued by the Software Publishers
Association (SPA) which prosecuted the investigation
along with the FBI.

Kenadek was accused of the usual SPA no-no's leveled
at operators of pirate systems: the distribution of
copyrighted retail software without payment of the
owners of the programs and charging access fees to users
for the express purpose of making a profit off distribution
of the software.

According to wire news, Kenadek could be slapped with six
years in prison and fines up to $275,000. He would also lose
all of his computer equipment used in servicing and maintaining
the bulletin board system.

Paradoxically, this is not the first time the FBI has
stormed the home of Richard Kenadek. In June of 1992,
the FBI first raided Kenadek and the Davey Jones Locker
bulletin board. At the time, Bill McMullin, the FBI's p.r.
man in the Boston bureau would not discuss the raid on
the Millbury man except to say it was the first of its kind handled
by his office. McMullin's counterpart in Washington, D.C.,
Nestor Michnyak, did say that "Our involvement in
white-collar crime investigations of this nature is
spotty, at best . . . it's not a top priority." During
this period, representatives of the Business
Software Alliance and Software Publishing Association,
trade groups which help direct, or assist - depending on who's
talking - the FBI's investigations into software piracy
openly smacked their lips at the prospect of taking
Kenadek down on strengthened software piracy laws which
set him up for serious jail time and fines, if convicted.
Apparently, the trade groups were premature in their hopes.
However, the SPA appears to have a long memory and uncommon
tenacity.

At the time of the original arrest in mid-1992, the
software groups, in conjunction with the FBI, claimed
Kenadek and the Davey Jones Locker system charged a
$99 annual fee from callers for access to retail software.



MR. BADGER CONTEMPLATES OUR CIVILIZATION 

Nothing is so precious to a bureaucracy as its enemies.
                                        -Lao Tzu Badger

It was inevitable that our government would bitch and moan before
finally accepting the truth:  the great red menace has become yet
another Third World country begging for handouts.  Once the truth
was accepted, it was equally inevitable that the bureaucrats would
find a new foe.   Unfortunately, they have seen the enemy and it
is us.

The New York Times recently reported that the hackers have landed
and truth, justice, and artificially flavored lemon meringue pie
are endangered.  The story was quickly echoed by every paper
in the nation.  As reported in Mr. Badger's home town paper, The
State, it was not a pretty sight.

"Computer hackers pose security risk to U.S. military:


"Armed with sophisticated snooping tools, unauthorized
computer programmers have gained access to hundreds of
sensitive but unclassified government and military
networks . . ."

What follows is a classic attempt to convince the average reader
that:

1.  Hackers are a true menace.
2.  Hackers haven't really done any damage.

Why two such contradictory beliefs fly together
should be old news to anybody who lived through the
McCarthy era.  If the populace can be whipped into an
appropriate frenzy of fear and hate, even
the most Draconian of measures will be hailed as bulwarks
for liberty and freedom.   But fascists are always
terribly conscious of their own dignity, so this is
how they think:

"Heaven forbid that the Yellow Peril/Red Menace/Vile Hackers
are succeeding because the responsible are incompetent.
No indeed, until now we have held them off from any serious
damage.  But your life and lives of all you cherish hang by
a thin, thin thread!  Without your mindless support, the
flame of western civilization will be extinguished!"

This explains why the hackers use "sophisticated snooping tools."
If they were only using household appliances like PCs and modems,
which is the reality, then the establishment is made to look
like bumblers, unworthy of positions in national leadership.

This explains why "advanced data encryption techniques . . .
prevent the military from discovering the nature of the data
being stolen."  And I figured the problem was government
computer systems without the logging ability of the average
shareware bulletin board system.  Ohhhh, Momma, lock the door.

It also clarifies why " . . . perhaps fewer than 5 percent
[of the hackers] have been detected."  They're not just
hackers! They're evil programmers with incomprehensible
tools and reprehensible encryption and now THEY'RE INVISIBLE,
too. Help, help! Who will save the little children now?

The sweet irony is that Mr. Badger recently received some
documentation from a large insurance company in the Southeast.
This company administers Medicare claims for a fourteen state
region.  The following is taken verbatim from page five of the
manual for participants who call into their database:

"NOTE:  Remember your Password.  You will need it every time
you perform claims status inquiry.  Helpful hint:  since
your password will expire every 30 days, use a system to
help you remember your new password.  For example, you
could use the names of months as passwords, using 'August'
for your password in August, 'Sept' for your password in
September, etc.  Or you may want to use your company name
or your own name as your password.  The first time you
have to change your password, use this name with a '1'
at the end of the name; then use the same name with a
'2' at the end for your second password change, etc.
Just remember that the password can be no less than 4
and no more than 8 characters."

Are you a hacker?  How long do you think it would take
to guess some of these passwords? And real hackers are
a national plague?!?!?

This is one of four companies, out of all the insurers
in the United States, to win the contract for the
regionalization of Medicare claims processing.  It is
supposed to represent the best in the nation!  (Did
I mention that they still use XMODEM for data transfers
from computer to computer?)

It's only fitting that the July 22 Wall Street
Journal ran a feature on yuppie mothers that breast
feed their children. A disturbing number, the Journal
reported, were only succeeding in starving their
children to death.  Mr. Badger views it as a sign:
As a nation we've been exposed to so many crass and mean
public officials and corporate bureaucrats that our
minds have been reduced to overboiled cabbage - even
the human ability to suckle children has been impaired.
Within twenty-five years we will have grown so enfeebled
that we won't be able to reproduce effectively.
There is a certain natural grace to this kind of end.



GET SMARTER: DEMYSTIFYING THE NATIONAL RECONNAISSANCE
OFFICE

by Steven Aftergood (saftergood@igc.apc.org)

[GET SMARTER originally appeared in the August-September
1994 issue of the Secrecy & Government Bulletin, published
by the Federation of American Scientists, 307 Massachusetts
Avenue, NE; Washington, D.C. 20002.  ISSN 1061-0340.
It is republished here by permission of the author.]


The disclosure of the secret $310 million headquarters
building for the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO)
provides a textbook example of how unnecessary secrecy
blocks responsible oversight and ultimately damages
the very activity which it is intended to protect.

The spectacle of Congressional outrage over the 1
million square foot NRO complex in Chantilly,
Virginia served two important purposes: It helped to
demystify the hyperclassified NRO, and it revealed
the profound limitations of Congressional oversight.

At an August 8 press conference, members of the
Senate Intelligence Committee disclosed the existence
of the secret project, and lashed out at the intelligence
community for failing to properly inform them of the
size and cost of the new site.

At a Senate hearing two days later, DCI James Woolsey
was able to produce enough of a paper trail to show
that no deliberate attempt had been made to conceal
the project from Congress.  But since the new site
was buried in the "base" budget and not broken out
as a separate line item, the total magnitude of the
project was not discovered by the Senate until recently.
Members of the House Intelligence Committee, in contrast,
indicated that they had been fully informed of the
project.

The whole episode was a major humiliation for the NRO,
which until 1992 was so secret that its existence was
not officially acknowledged.  In its very first
appearance in an open public hearing, the NRO was
obliged to grovel.  "We have been negligent, clearly
negligent, for not showing the budget breakout for
this project," said Roger Marsh, director of the
NRO headquarters project.

The disclosure of the secret facility also served as
a lightning rod for the wrath and ridicule of Senators
and Congressmen.  "This is not the first time such
a thing has happened," said Senator Daniel P. Moynihan,
"nor will it be, I fear, the last . . . This is an
agency which has lied to Congress before.  Egregiously."

"The intelligence community of this government, the
CIA in particular," said Rep. Robert Toricelli, "is
a government within a government.  We are not controlling
it, we are not monitoring it, we are not controlling its
spending.  We are not functioning in our constitutional
responsibilities."

"This is the big lie," said Rep. James Traficant, "el
supremo fibbo . . . I say we should convert that
[new NRO building] to a prison and start by locking
up these lying, thieving, stealing CIA nincompoops."

In World War I, the chief of German intelligence
could still say that "Intelligence is inherently
a noble profession." (_Der Nachrichtendienst ist
immer ein Herrendienst_.) But today, the public
face of intelligence is represented by bureaucratic
bunglers, knaves and fools.  In popular culture,
every half-wit "action" movie now seems to feature
a corrupt or sadistic intelligence official.
The New York Times (8/14/1994) even illustrated one
of its stories on the NRO with a photograph of
Maxwell Smart speaking on his shoe-telephone.

To the extent that national security does in fact
depend on intelligence, the mounting public contempt
for U.S. intelligence agencies is serious problem.
And to a considerable degree, this contempt is attributable
to the excessive and indiscriminate secrecy practiced
by the intelligence community.

"The larger issue here," said Sen. Bob Kerrey," is the
fundamental question of what should be classified
in order to protect our country from the real enemies
that threaten us, and what information should be
declassified so the public can know how their
money is spent."

But a principal lesson of the NRO building controversy
is that even the most benign information will not
be declassified by the intelligence community without
a scandal. (Senator Kerrey mistakenly commended
DCI Woolsey and Deputy Secretary of Defense John
Deutsch for declassifying the NRO building.  They only
did so under pressure and after White House intervention.
DCI Woolsey had advocated continued classification for
an additional 18 months.)

Even the NRO's unimaginative logo was considered classified
information prior to the allegations of NRO misconduct.
In order to achieve a responsible classification policy,
it appears that further scandals will be necessary, even
if they have to be manufactured.

The NRO building controversy also brought to the fore
the inadequacy of Congressional oversight of
intelligence.

According to Senator Malcolm Wallop, "The Senate
Intelligence Committee has been aware of this
construction project since its inception.  Indeed
it was largely responsible for the consolidation
of the NRO which made this project necessary.
At any time over the last several years, the committee
could have examined this project in detail.  Only
recently did the committee bother to take a look."

One reason the project was overlooked (rather than
overseen) is that it was presented in the "base"
part of the budget, instead of being identified
as a "new initiative."  And according to Senate
Intelligence staffer Mary Sturtevant, "The great
majority of continuing, or 'base,' programs go
unscrutinized by the Senate committee.  (American
Intelligence Journal, Summer 1992, page 19.)

Another reason is that the Committee lacks the
resources to thoroughly and responsibly review the
massive intelligence budget, of which the NRO share
alone is currently $6.5 billion.  According to
Senator John Warner, the NRO has 25 persons involved
in budget matters.  On the other hand, he noted,
the Senate committee has only one single staff person
assigned to the task. (Cong. Rec., 8/10/94, p. S11142.)

Senator Wallop, a Committee member, further complained
that "the [intelligence] budget hearings in which I
participated this year were designed more to titillate
than to inform, to show us the most amazing of the
most amazing.  They were too short and they simply
did not inform us."

The Senate's immediate response to the whole issue
was to pass an amendment requiring that any
intelligence construction project that costs $300
million or more must be identified in a specific
budget line item (within the classified budget
request).  But, of course, this does not even
begin to get to the root of the matter,
which is excessive and inappropriate secrecy.

Senator DeConcini, the intelligence committee
chairman, said "People ask me today how many
more buildings are out there?  I hope there are
none, and I do not want to leave any inferences
that there are.  But frankly . . . it makes me
wonder."

[The day the NRO story broke on CNN, afternoon
anchor Judy Woodruff referred to the agency
as "the NRA" and "the Puzzle Palace," the
latter a term commonly reserved for the
NATIONAL SECURITY AGENCY since the publication
of James Bamford's book on the same
organization - not the NRO, incidentally -
in 1982.  Surely, there could be no higher tribute
to the effectiveness of the NRO's conspicuous
absence in the mainstream media during the last
ten years than Woodruff's gaffes.

The Crypt Newsletter last covered the NRO in issue
number 18. --UK]


REVIEWED: TOM CLANCY'S "DEBT OF HONOR"

Tom Clancy has always been a guilty pleasure at
the Crypt Newsletter.  As his books have expanded
from taut 250-plus page thrillers like "The Hunt for
Red October" when he was published by
the Naval Institute Press to the era of MegaClancy,
his novels have always been coveted. "Debt of
Honor" (Putnam, $25.95) is little different
from that winning formula, but I enjoy Clancy for
reasons having more to do with his unintentional
satirical talent.

Clancy has tapped into a vast American readership
which fancies the idea of thrusting an entrenching
tool (or perhaps a prussic acid tipped carbon fiber
needle) into the back of the neck of some foreigner,
preferably smaller.  "Debt of Honor" reserves
this pleasure for the Japanese, whom Clancy obviously
detests.  The Japs in this novel are generally depraved
and treacherous finks who enjoy reading comic books
depicting talking dogs that have sex with women, kidnapping
their countrymen and killing American whores.

In "Debt of Honor,"  Japanese gangsters subvert
the present government, acquire nuclear weapons
mounted on retooled Russian ICBMs and launch a sneak
attack on the American navy in the Pacific with
the war-cry "Climb Mount Niitaka!"  [No, I am not
making this up.]  Through the aid of some no-account
U.S. computer programmers, the Japs are also able
to plant a logic bomb on Wall Street which erases
all the records of international financial transactions
at a moment when the monetary markets are in
maximum flux.  The idea here is rather interesting,
in a Toffler-esque kind of way, with the Japanese aim
of throwing the U.S. into an economic Dark Age.

Of course, they haven't taken into account Jack Ryan
and his henchmen at the CIA.  The stupid fools!
Ryan is a hero of Norse God proportions and he's
able to lash together an undercover campaign
which features attack helicopters operating over Tokyo,
Japanese airborne command centers being shot down
near their runways by pilot-blinding laser flashes
and naval operations which take back the Pacific
theater from the conquering Nips in about two weeks.
B-2 bombers even arrive to save the day, flying in from
Alaska to take out the Jap nukes.  Why, Ryan's wife
even becomes the world's most eminent
scientist/physician during "Debt of Honor"!

It's riveting, action-wise, but the reader soon
stumbles into the book's prime stumbling block.  The action is
separated by 100-200 page deserts of boring, diplomatic
talk; stupefying political talk; and even more aimless
talk for the sake of talking.  However, it is
unique in 1994 that "Debt of Honor" is a printed work which
doesn't portray the CIA as a petrified bureaucracy of
traitors, venal paranoids, incompetents, power drunks and
date rapists.

The end of "Debt of Honor" is predictable.  Clancy
gently telegraphs it for about two hundred pages so the
reader isn't surprised or dismayed when a Japanese
kamikaze pilot steers his jet-liner into the capitol
building, killing all of Congress and the President,
leaving Jack Ryan in charge of the triumphant nation
just in time for the next book.

Yeah, I recommend "Debt of Honor." At about
three-and-a-half cents a page, you can't go wrong.

[Related reading:  "Frank Merriwell At The Wheel!",
"Sgt. Nick Fury and His Howling Commandos" (Marvel
Comics).]

REVIEWED: "THE UNIX-HATERS HANDBOOK" IS A TASTY
PIE

A few weeks ago a quarrelsome editor at IDG
Books wrote the Crypt Newsletter protesting my
treatment of his ". . . for Dummies" line of
merchandise.  In essence, I said the " . . . for
Dummies" books were a fiendishly
clever IQ test, and that if you bought one, you
flunked.  The howls of outrage and indignation
that resulted were terrible to behold.

Well, IDG has published "The UNIX-Haters Handbook"
(by Simson Garfinkel, Daniel Weise & Steven
Strassman, 329 pp.) which is yet another such test,
only this time if you get sucked in, you pass.

I know exactly ZIP about Unix, but "UNIX-Haters"
balls together much of the vitriol and apocrypha on
UNIX circulating on the Usenet into a read that
entertains and enlightens without being kiss-ass,
and that's a lot to expect in 1994.

In the first thirty or so pages, UNIX master Dennis
Ritchie writes of "UNIX-Haters, ". . . your book is
a pudding stuffed with apposite observations, many
well-conceived.  Like excrement, it contains enough
undigested nuggets of nutrition to sustain life for
some.  But it is not a tasty pie:  It reeks too much
of contempt and envy."  "UNIX-Haters" is also the
only book I have ever owned which comes equipped with
a paper vomit bag!

"UNIX-Haters" is filled with psychologically troubling
material: from brutal assessments of the inhabitants of
the Usenet - "Most . . . are male science and engineering
undergraduates who rarely have the knowledge or maturity
to conduct a public conversation" - to a handful of weird
commands and shell scripts which, if used on an Internet
site, will instigate some manner of angry confusion and
hysteria.

"UNIX-Haters" is a must for the card-carrying Info Highway
skeptic.


THEY'LL DO IT EVERY TIME!

["They'll Do It Every Time!" is a Crypt Newsletter
column designed to bring readers the work, news and
opinions of the dumb and the ignorant inhabiting
various segments of America's techno-society, as
solemnly as can be managed.]

Mr. Badger cagily put Urnst Kouch's name on the
mailing list for Gary Olen's "The Sportsman's Guide"
merchandise and outdoor gear catalog.  Some of the
prime bargains found in the latest "fun-to-read
catalog" are itemized below:

1. "Pssst!  Big Shooter . . . show this to your lady!
Sheer and sexy Camo[uflage] Undies and Lingerie
are GUARANTEED TO WIND YOUR CLOCK . . . picture
your lady wearing these sexy Camo Nighttime Naughties.
One size fits all . . . $9.99"

2.  "Walk the streets alone in safety.  Just press the
button and watch . . . With all the publicity stun guns
have gotten, any attacker with half a brain will take
off at the fearsome sight . . . But if he's a complete
nitwit, just touch him for a few seconds . . . and he'll
drop like a rock.  The current will send his muscles
into spasms . . . [and] will also short circuit his
thought process (which is already messed up) causing
disorientation and mental confusion . . .
The 150,000 VOLT LAXATIVE - Megapower for your hand . . .
$59.99; or The 150,000 VOLT QUIVERING LUMP BATON (Pop
Goes the Weasel!) . . . $79.99"

3.  Underwater Fuse . . . Burns at the rate of 26 seconds
per foot.  Pack of five, 10' lengths . . . $8.99

4.  "Startling [decal] Bullet Holes.  Put a couple on
a friend's windshield and watch their mouth drop
open.  Stick 'em on car windows, house or cabin windows
or just about anything.  When people first see them,
THEIR MINDS GRIND TO A HALT . . . Pack of 40 . . .
$8.99"

5.  "Order free: 1-800-888-.30-06"

                    -*-
Los Angeles Times business columnist/MIT denizen
Michael Schrage is regarded by the Crypt
Newsletter as possibly the most remarkable
man in the world. On a weekly basis, he
tirelessly addresses the problems of the
world ranging from how to cure AIDS to solving defense
conversion dilemmas, even to the teaching
of the lame to see and the blind to walk.  An October
column on the Pizza Hut PizzaNet on-line system,
however, was tops.

Michael wrote, " . . . as computationally clever as
on-line [pizza] ordering may be, it misses the
point of what this medium can do . . . Instead of
simply letting people order a pizza, why not let
them design it as well?  Instead of showing an
ordinary menu with a list of toppings, show a picture
of a pizza with the topping clustered on the side.
Let teenagers and college students build their own
pizzas on screen.  Present a palette of toppings
and let people place their mushrooms and green peppers
and pepperoni anywhere on the pizza they want.  The real
pizza is customized accordingly.  In other words,
computer-aided pizza engineering . . . This is
precisely the sort of interactivity that computers
and networks are good at . . . Indeed, a Pizza Hut
or Domino's might even be able to sell its 'pizza
design' software to customers.  Turn making the
family pizza into a video game . . . So
everybody can win."

                    -*-

Has the U.S. government declared war on someone
while we weren't looking or are executives at
Northrop Grumman in the grip of a new "Strength
Through Joy" advertising campaign?  In the
September 7 Los Angeles Times, Northrop ran
a one-third of a page ad for the B-2 Stealth
bomber.  The copy:

" . . . For more than a decade, hundreds of
companies, all across [California] have
been working on the B-2.  Using Northrop
Grumman's leadership in stealth technology to
build an aircraft that is, by all accounts,
the most survivable aircraft ever flown.
So survivable, in fact, that one B-2 can often
fly missions that free up dozens of ordinary
aircraft for less hazardous jobs.  Which
makes it possible for fewer pilots to be put
at risk every time the B-2 flies.  At
Northrop Grumman, we understand this accomplishment
was brought about by the efforts of 25,000
dedicated people.  People who are, quite honestly,
the most creative we've ever seen.  And in this
state, that's definitely saying a lot."

Unless we're not being told something, it behooves
readers to know the B-2 has only flown in anger
in Tom Clancy's "Debt of Honor" and other novels
by various techno-thrillers writers. However,
if one guesses that Northrop is about to
give the chop to the "dedicated people . . . the
most creative we've ever seen" in a shakeout following
the merger with Grumman, the ad makes a lot of sense
from a corporate feelgood standpoint.  But that
would be an overly cynical view. [Note: In
Southern California, Hughes, another aerospace giant,
fired 4,000 during the second week of September.]

And as Crypt 27 went to the electronic presses, Grumman
Northrop continued the B-2 glorification program in
the Sunday, September 11, L.A. Times with an even larger
ad which declared:

"After spending years building an aircraft that's
virtually undetectable, don't you think it's a bit
strange we're telling the world how to see it?
Not when you understand why.  In the Gulf War, the
U.S. needed to attack a strategic target.  This complex
mission involved 75 airplanes, including fighter
bombers, fighter escorts, air defense suppression
aircraft and airborne tankers.  Not to mention the
132 crew members need to fly these aircraft.  How does
the B-2 change this scenario?  First, the fighter
escorts can be deployed elsewhere.  Since the B-2 is
virtually undetectable, there's no need to protect
something the enemy can't find.  The suppression
aircraft can also fly other missions.  Since the
B2 can fly over 6,000 miles without refueling, the
tankers are free to support other aircraft.
And since the B-2 carries 32,000 pounds of precision
weapons, the fighter bombers can be used against
other targets.  So how many B-2's are needed to
free up 75 other aircraft?  Two.  And even more
important, only four pilots will be put at risk.
So think it over.  Now that you know how the B-2
really works, maybe it isn't that hard to see
after all."

Not mentioned is that for the price of two B-2's,
one can also purchase the 75 aircraft referenced.
And get change.

-->The Crypt Newsletter gives "Thanks and a tip o' the
hat" to the original creators of "They'll Do It
Every Time," wherever they might be.



CHIP'S AHOY:  GERMAN COMPUTER MAGAZINE INTERVIEWS
INTERNATIONAL VIRUS WRITERS AS MATERIAL FOR
SPECIAL ISSUE

The Crypt Newsletter has learned that CHIP, a German
computer magazine, recently sent a staffer named
Ralph into the jungle of the FIDO-net
in search of John Buchanan, a Virginia-based
hacker and virus writer who has appeared from time
to time in these electronic pages.

Inspired by the recent publication of an article
entitled "Virus, They Wrote," which appeared
in the September 1994 PC Magazine, the German
editors are trying to recreate the same material
 - interviews with virus writers - presented
in the Ziff-Davis publication.

"At the end of the year," wrote Ralph, "[the] German
Computer-Magazin, called CHIP, will publish a
Spezial-Magazin about computer viruses. The editor
[is] searching for anybody from the 'bad guys' who
[is] willing to give [interviews]."

The special could turn out to be a must read
since Germany is the home of a number of famous figures
in the history of computer viruses.

Frankfurt, for example, is the home of Project
Rahab. According to Peter Schweizer's book, "Friendly
Spies," (1993, Atlantic Monthly Press) Rahab was the
code name for a German intelligence group committed
to using hackers and their methods to
gather information and secrets on whatever
was of high-tech interest to the Bundesnachrictendienst,
Germany's CIA analog. Schweizer claimed the Rahab group
routinely included America in its operations during
the early '90s and hired a famous German hacker, Bernd
Fix, to supply a virus for possible military applications.
Fix's work was well known within the circle of experts
familiar with PC viruses!  He had provided another
German, Ralf Burger, with a disassembly of the famous
Vienna virus and another of his own, Rush Hour, which
Burger subsequently reprinted in a book published in
1987 called "Computer Viruses: A High-Tech Disease."
More recently renamed as "Computer Viruses and
Data Protection," the book is marketed by the
German software and computer book publisher, Abacus.

Many in the computing community hated Burger because
"Computer Viruses: A High-Tech Disease" devoted
quite a bit of space to the grubby particulars of data
mutilation and supplied the source code to Vienna
and a series of primitive viruses called Burger
and Virdem. Quite naturally, the Vienna, Burger and
Fix viruses immediately found their way into the
hands of virus programmers and bulletin board system
operators worldwide.

Burger not only had written viruses, he was also in the
anti-virus business.  His software was sold by
Abacus in the United States as "Virus Secure," a
product that was quietly withdrawn from the market in 1992.

The circulation of "Computer Viruses: A High Tech Disease,"
was largely responsible for the popularization of the Vienna,
Burger and Virdem families of viruses, the result being that
the programs have been altered again and again into different
forms since 1987. None of these viruses pose credible
threats in 1994.

More recently, various German agents have purchased
large libraries of computer viruses from Americans operating
virus exchange bulletin board systems.  One of the
most well travelled was a man called Gerhard Maier. Maier
linked himself with the German firm, DatenTechnik, a manufacturer
of anti-virus software. While buying viruses, Maier also
traded viruses isolated in Europe with the underground
community of virus writers in the United States. Maier was
the first to introduce the SMEG polymorphic computer virus
into the United States earlier this year when he traded it to
virus exchange operators on the East Coast.  Around mid-July,
the alleged author of the SMEG series of computer viruses,
a hacker known as Black Baron, was arrested by New Scotland
Yard's computer crime unit in connection with claims that
he had attempted to spread the SMEG viruses piggybacked on
shareware.


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--------------------------------------------------------------
Editor George Smith edits The Crypt Newsletter from
Pasadena, CA. Andy Lopez lives in Columbia, SC.

copyright 1994 Crypt Newsletter. All rights reserved.