Interview with 1nternal
By Rhape79
[March 1999]

Before we begin is there anything you would like to confess?

> The 'sexlist' link on my site is actually a dropper for Triplicate :), apart from that, there is nothing really.

Who are you, what do you do, what kind of music do you like etc.. and how did you get your nick?

> Hmm, well I'm a UNI student in Brisbane doing Engineering/IT and get up to all the usual crap. My nick comes from trying to quickly decide on a nick during an IRC session. At the time, I had a 2880 internal modem so decided on 'Internal' just temporarily. However I got to know a couple people under that nick so decided to stick with it for a while, I altered the 'I' to '1' to prevent nick clashes on IRC, only to find that few services accept nicks/names etc beginning with a digit :P. Oh well, such is life, and I consider myself to carefree to be bothered about it. I enjoy all sorts of music, I have access to several hundreds of MP3's over an intranet so can play just about any song on demand ;)

Where are you from?

> Brisbane, Australia :), although I travel quite a bit, and I have been based in a couple places throughout my VX 'career' :).

How would you describe yourself (eg. mad, antisocial, above average intelligence etc..)?

> Very layed back I suppose, I'd sooner be out drinking /picking-up /sleeping than doing any work, including writing viruses, however, I am motivated by any new ideas that I come up with and would willingly spend a couple hours trying to produce a working example of a theory. I am not motivated in the slightest to do any work uni-wise, something which will probably be my downfall. I also have a serious addiction to the opposite sex and getting drunk, two things that can cause quite an interesting mix.

How did you get involved in the VX scene?

> I managed to lay my hands on an advanced book on assembly (quite basic for someone who can already code in ASM, but well above the head of any beginner), and a shareware assembler (a very old version of A86). I had no idea on how to code in assembly, how a virus worked or anything, I also didn't have a connection to the internet. So I set it upon myself to design and code an EXE appending virus, completely from my own theory of how a virus could work. I managed to write RAT.848 a non-resident appending EXE virus (I had to actually look up half of the assembly mnemonics cause I had no idea at all, although I've always quite quick at picking up new languages), and from there I designed a couple polymorphic engines and COM/EXE resident viruses etc, then onto the more recent script type viruses (Macro/HTML/VBS etc).

Are you part of any VX team, if so which one(s) and fer how long?

> No, just flying solo. I don't really want to 'officially' become part of the virus underground, just contribute any ideas that I might come up with, without being actively involved.

How many viruses have you written to date, and which do you feel was the 'best' one?

> Not too sure, maybe 20 or so. O97.'Triplicate'/'Tristate' is probably my favourite, although writing the 'First HTML virus' caused quite a stir, even if it wasn't such a big deal. W97.ACM/Nail although not widespread I think introduces a new concept which will probably be taken up by viruses in the future as well.

What do you see as the future fer yourself (and your team(s))?

> I don't intend to ever officially 'retire' so to speak, although I never really considered it a 'job' (ie, I don't and don't plan on being committed to the scene in any way) so I may go years without doing anything, I am in no way obligated to produce any code or ideas, so I will do as I please. However I will keep my site up and may occasionaly add to it if I come up with anything new. As my site implies, it is merely an outlet, not an up to the minute update of the virus scene, so don't expect it to be.

What languages do you know?

> ASM, C/++, VBscript, VBA, JavaScript probably a couple others not worth mentioning, they're all pretty similar and based on the same basic principals, a new language can pretty much be picked up in a week or so if its similar to any others.

Are there any viruses in particular which you think were good (eg. great survival, stealth, encryption etc..)?

> Spanska's Happy99/Ska worm thing is one of the 'viruses' I admire the most. It's an ingenious idea and certainly the way viruses of the future will be tending towards. I look forward to the next virus which uses similar technology, I have no doubts someone somewhere is working on something similar and I can't wait to see it.

What do you think of viral payloads - and more specifically destructive payloads?

> I personally don't write destructive payloads, but thats more because I couldn't be bothered, I try to make my viruses unique in their actual design etc rather than just an interesting payload. However I've come to learn that even the lamest viruses will get noticed by the press if it does or attempts to do something even remotely interesting payload-wise. I don't look down on any virus which has a destructive payload, however I do see it as unnecessary and if it is no different to any other virus then really the author only gains experience in writing viruses, without producing anything new, which could of been obtained without writing a destructive payload.

Unique question here - Can you describe the perfect virus?

> Well, no not really, but I'm sure that in this day and age it would have to be internet aware, but at the same time capable of infecting computers without a connection. It could possibly exploit a feature such as 'sharing' on an intranet and upload itself to any writable directory on the intranet. I also believe that polymorphism can be taken a few steps further to produce a virus which would be pretty much undetectable, at least with current methods. Cross platform issues aren't really an issue given the fact that majority of computers use Windows, although it would have to be at least compatible with the different versions of Win95/NT, as the users of 95,98 and NT is starting to even up. But certainly the exploitation of networks and the internet is by far the best spreading methods today, as Happy99 shows, it isn't even necessary to really strictly infect files at all. I also imagine future macro viruses will exploit this even more, probably similar to the methods I've used in W97.ACM (W97.Nail).

What is your opinion of pro-virus members/groups, and why?

> It does promote such things as tutorials etc, however I am more a fan of the free-lance approach. Although I have seen some excellent articles from some groups which I probably never would have seen if they didn't exist as a group. However, many of the older and 'wiser' virus authors in the scene follow the common trend of not being involved in any group, if they did, it is probably more likely they would no longer be involved.

What is your opinion of anti-virus members/companies, and why?

> I am pretty much unbiased in any way, they are just doing their job.

If Microsoft offered you a job to work on MSAV - Would you take it?

> Certainly, afterall, I'm sure the money would be ok :), I feel I'm mature enough to realise this VX loyalty shit is just a bunch of kids trying to be 'leet, and reality is, lifes just about making green. I think working for an AV company would be an ok job, I'd enjoy coming up with ideas on prevention of viruses just as much as the development of them.

Are there any pro-virus members/groups you'd like to greet?

> Just anyone who's ever had any interest in viruses, and not been a dickhead about it.

Are there any anti-virus members/companies you'd like to greet?

> No, but keep up the good work guys, the next generation of viruses are going to be a bitch, whether you like it or not.

This is your bit to say what ever you like (announce your next virus, tell us about your team, whatever...)

> Hi Mum.

Thank you fer taking the time to do this interview.

> Your welcome. :)