Interview with Qark
by Mr. Sandman
[February 1998]

For this second issue of 29A, we decided to interview Qark, one of the best virus writers ever (maybe the best?), who left VLAD and the scene about one year ago. Albeit his lack of free time, this very good friend of mine was eventually able to make possible to bring you now this great oportunity to know him better.

We all miss you, dude.

Ok, Qark... this is the classic first question of almost every interview... tell me why did you choose your nick

When Metabolis and I started out with VLAD we had local scene nicks that everyone knew, so we had to get new ones. (Obviously meta wasn't always called meta). When I first jumped into irc for #virus, every nick i picked was always taken, so I thought to myself "What nick could I possibly pick that noone will ever use ?", and picked Qark - because it defies the laws of English by dropping the 'u'. But why "Qark" out of all the "Q" words ? I don't know.. I can't think of any other "Q" words to be honest.

When and with 'what' did you start computing?

I didn't own a computer until after I left highschool. (A few years back). My first computer was a mighty 8088 XT with 20 Meg hard disk and EGA monitor :)

And when did you first know about a computer virus (first experience, with which virus(es), etc)?

The first I ever heard about computer viruses was when TZ's X-Fungus virus infected Suncorp (a local bank) on the radio. The first virus I ever encountered in the flesh was 1575 (green caterpiller) on someones computer. I took a copy home so that I could work out how to make a virus of my own but it was beyond me at the time.

In what computer languages can you code?

ASM, PAS, SQL, Modula-2 and some C.

Describe yourself (phisically, morally... however... even sexually if you dare) :)

Umm White, Male, average height, brown hair, blue-green-hazel (something) eyes. I'm very conservative morally - viruses are a bit of an anomally in my personality.

Ok, now about viruses... tell me which ones have you coded, and/or the ones you like most

Let me see.. I've written a whole heap of viruses. Father, Mother, Sister, Brother (Incest family - Very lame) - VLAD#1

Actually mother wasn't too bad. It still stealths everything.

VLAD virus, Republic, Meningitis - VLAD#2

Pretty lame still, although my flash bios infector was a nifty idea.

Hemlock, Megastealth - VLAD#3

Both these viruses were pretty cool even if somewhat buggy.

Winsurfer, Goodtimes - VLAD#4

Winsurfer was a big breakthrough for Quantum and I so it is one of my favourite virii.

Horsa, Ph33r - VLAD#5

I liked both of these virii. Horsa was one of the hardest things I've ever written due to the mathematics involved so I like it, and Ph33r is the first multi-OS (kind of) virus so I liked it too. (Quantum wrote the memory routines for that one)

Gilgamesh, tracevir, 386 virus - VLAD#6

Pretty ordinary viruses, but my VSTE (my file entry point tunneling engine) was a new concept so I kind of liked it, even if it has been done better since.

Padania, goodbye - VLAD#7

Padania was good. Goodbye sucked.

Quantum and I have worked on a couple of Win95 viruses together. Win95.Punch and one in memory of TZ..

Btw, about VLAD (unavoidable question) :) you left the group... you said you didn't have the time for doing other things... explain it better, please... did you get a girlfriend? :)

By "other things" I meant "anything". Spend your time vladding and the rest of your life goes to hell.

And I do have a lovely woman who takes up a sizeable chunk of my time :) luckily for me she likes viruses :)

What about your personal future projects?

Some more win95 viruses are on the cards.

I did the vxd routines in a couple of win95 viruses so I'm still coding every now and then..

And more thingies about VLAD... could you tell me something about its story (who, when, why decided to create it, etc)?

I'm pretty vague about it, but I think it went like this: Meta read ir#2 and thought "cool, im gonna start my own virus group and call it vlad". At this stage I didn't know him at all. A day later he was chatting to the sysop of the local warez board about his latest group when he was put in touch with me. And voila thats how it started.

Meta had his own shareware bbs where he was the good-guy sysop, while in a secret area was the vlad virus section. There we would swap code for our latest direct-action virii :)

When we got enough dross ready to produce vlad1 I jumped on the bus and the train and went out to his place to put it all together. We met for the first time at the train station. Nothing much happened at his place apart from the magazine production. The main thing I remember is it being freezing cold .. we were working on it until the early hours of the morning.

Somewhere along the track meta met TZ and invited him to our private vlad conference on his bbs. We'd discuss virii techniques..

Sometime later we went onto IRC and our story is well known since then..

Which is/are your favourite virus(es)?

RDA.fighter is probably my favourite, followed by starship.

The new virus by Quantum and I is really cool :) coming to a hard disk near you :)

Do you think the perfect virus exists or might be ever coded?

No.. the whole idea of a perfect virus is stupid I think.

How will the 'viruses of the future' look in your opinion?

It will be a resident win95/NT infector.

Ok, now let's have a look at the other side... AVs and AVers. Which is the AV you like most?

AVP is pretty good. Its win95 version really needs a scanning VXD though.

Heh... one question is enough for those niggas ;) now about the virus scene... give me your point of view about it (old groups, new groups, who's cool, who sucks... you know) :)

Firstly, VLAD is cool :)

Nuke, rabid and yam were all lame.. but trident and p/s were good.

IR were always my favourite group but I don't like IRG much..

29A are way cool :)

Finally, just send a greet to someone, say something, sing, write a poem <g>, pull yourself :)... dunno, whatever you want. This is your free space :)

RIP TZ :(

Greets fly out to Metabolis and Quantumg and all the people I like.

Also a kiss to a certain girl :)

Good luck, Qark... especially with that girl ;)