CRYPT NEWSLETTER 38 July-August 1996 Editor: Urnst Kouch (George Smith, Ph.D.) Media Critic: Mr. Badger (Andy Lopez) INTERNET: 70743.1711@compuserve.com crypt@sun.soci.niu.edu NOTE: Subscriptions to Crypt Newsletter can now be had for $10 US for one year. Checks and money orders to the editor at 1635 Wagner Street, Pasadena, CA 91106 along with a current electronic mail address where you wish to receive your issues of Crypt Newsletter. Crypt Newsletter articles may not be reproduced in or on other media without consent of the editor. Rates based on word count are reasonable. 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Send review hardware/software/books/materiel to: George Smith, Editor Crypt Newsletter 1635 Wagner St. Pasadena, CA 91106 ------------------------------------------------------------------ 旼컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴� � Contents: Crypt Newsletter #38 � 읕컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴� THIS ISSUE NEWS The Info-Warriors: Richard Pryce and Mathew Bevan's excellent adventure John Alexander watch: Poker in the rear of the flying saucer, Part II Computer virus book to sell for $395.00 The Kaiser of Microsoft speaks from an aircraft carrier SOFTWARE Some not so obvious DOS business in Windows95 MISCELLANY Letters page Crypt Newsletter Hypertext Crypt Masthead Info Credits/Acknowledgment THE INFO-WARRIORS: BRITISH HACKERS BECOME POSTER BOYS FOR U.S. GOVERNMENT AGENTS PARANOID ABOUT FOREIGN CONSPIRACIES Electronic doom will soon be visited on U.S. computer networks by information warriors, hackers, pannational groups of computer-wielding religious extremists, possible agents of Libya and Iran, international thugs and money-mad Internet savvy thieves. John Deutch, director of Central Intelligence, testified to the truth of the matter, so it must be graven in stone. In a long statement composed in the august tone of the Cold Warrior, Deutch said to the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations on June 25, "My greatest concern is that hackers, terrorist organizations, or other nations might use information warfare techniques" to disrupt the national infrastructure. "Virtually any 'bad actor' can acquire the hardware and software needed to attack some of our critical information-based infrastructures. Hacker tools are readily available on the Internet, and hackers themselves are a source of expertise for any nation or foreign terrorist organization that is interested in developing an information warfare capability. In fact, hackers, with or without their full knowledge, may be supplying advice and expertise to rogue states such as Iran and Libya." In one sentence, the head of the CIA cast hackers -- from those more expert than Kevin Mitnick to AOLHell-wielding idiots calling an America On-Line overseas account -- as pawns of perennial international bogeymen, Libya and Iran. Scrutiny of the evidence that led to this conclusion was not possible since it was classified, according to Deutch. " . . . we have [classified] evidence that a number of countries around the world are developing the doctrine, strategies, and tools to conduct information attacks," said Deutch. Catching glimpses of shadowy enemies at every turn, Deutch characterized them as operating from the deep cover of classified programs in pariah states. Truck bombs aimed at the telephone company, electronic assaults by "paid hackers" are likely to be part of the arsenal of anyone from the Lebanese Hezbollah to "nameless . . . cells of international terrorists such as those who attacked the World Trade Center." Quite interestingly, a Minority Staff Report entitled "Security and Cyberspace" and presented to the subcommittee around the same time as Deutch's statement, presented a different picture. In its attempt to raise the alarm over hacker assaults on the U.S., it inadvertently portrayed the intelligence community responsible for appraising the threat as hidebound stumblebums, Cold Warriors resistant to change and ignorant or indifferent to the technology of computer networks and their misuse. Written by Congressional staff investigators Dan Gelber and Jim Christy, the report quotes an unnamed member of the intelligence community likening threat assessment in the area to "a toddler soccer game, where everyone just runs around trying to kick the ball somewhere." Further, assessment of the threat posed by information warriors was "not presently a priority of our nation's intelligence and enforcement communities." The report becomes more comical with briefings from intelligence agencies said to be claiming that the threat of hackers and information warfare is "substantial" but completely unable to provide a concrete assessment of the threat because few or no personnel were working on the subject under investigation. "One agency assembled [ten] individuals for the Staff briefing, but ultimately admitted that only one person was actually working 'full time' on intelligence collection and threat analysis," write Gelber and Christy. The CIA is one example. "Central Intelligence Agency . . . staffs an 'Information Warfare Center'; however, at the time of [the] briefing, barely a handful of persons were dedicated to collection and on [sic] defensive information warfare," comment the authors. " . . . at no time was any agency able to present a national threat assessment of the risk posed to our information infrastructure," they continue. Briefings on the subject, if any and at any level of classification, "consisted of extremely limited anecdotal information." Oh no, John, say it ain't so! The minority report continues to paint a picture of intelligence agencies that have glommed onto the magic words "information warfare" and "hackers" as mystical totems, grafting the subjects onto "pre-existing" offices or new "working groups." However, the operations are based only on labels. "Very little prioritization" has been done, there are few analysts working on the subjects in question. Another "very senior intelligence officer for science and technology" is quoted claiming "it will probably take the intelligence community years to break the traditional paradigms, and re-focus resources" in the area. Restated, intelligence director Deutch pronounced in June there was classified evidence that hackers are in league with Libya and Iran and that countries around the world are plotting plots to attack the U.S. through information warfare. But the classified data is and was, at best, anecdotal gossip -- hearsay, bullshit -- assembled by perhaps a handful of individuals working haphazardly inside the labyrinth of the intelligence community. There is no real threat assessment to back up the Deutch claims. Can anyone say _bomber gap_? The lack of solid evidence for any of the claims made by the intelligence community has created an unusual stage on which two British hackers, Datastream Cowboy and Kuji, were made the dog and pony in a ridiculous show to demonstrate the threat of information warfare to members of Congress. Because of a break-in at an Air Force facility in Rome, NY, in 1994, both hackers were made the stars of two Government Accounting Office reports on network intrusions in the Department of Defense earlier this year. The comings and goings of Datastream Cowboy also constitute the meat of Gelber and Christy's minority staff report from the Subcommittee on Investigations. Before delving into it in detail, it's interesting to read what a British newspaper published about Datastream Cowboy, a sixteen year-old, about a year before he was made the poster boy for information warfare and international hacking conspiracies in front of Congress. In a brief article, blessedly so in contrast to the reams of propaganda published on the incident for Congress, the July 5 1995 edition of The Independent wrote, "[Datastream Cowboy] appeared before Bow Street magistrates yesterday charged with unlawfully gaining access to a series of American defense computers. Richard Pryce, who was 16 at the time of the alleged offences, is accused of accessing key US Air Force systems and a network owned by Lockheed, the missile and aircraft manufacturers." Pryce, a resident of a northwest suburb of London did not enter a plea on any of 12 charges levied against him under the British Computer Misuse Act. He was arrested on May 12, 1994, by New Scotland Yard as a result of work by the U.S. Air Force Office of Special Investigations. The Times of London reported when police came for Pryce, they found him at his PC on the third floor of his family's house. Knowing he was about to be arrested, he "curled up on the floor and cried." In Gelber and Christy's staff report, the tracking of Pryce, and to a lesser extent a collaborator called Kuji -- real name Mathew Bevan, is retold as an eight page appendix entitled "The Case Study: Rome Laboratory, Griffiss Air Force Base, NY Intrusion." Pryce's entry into Air Force computers was noticed on March 28, 1994, when personnel discovered a sniffer program he had installed on one of the Air Force systems in Rome. The Defense Information System Agency (DISA) was notified. DISA subsequently called the Air Force Office of Special Investigations (AFOSI) at the Air Force Information Warfare Center in San Antonio, Texas. AFOSI then sent a team to Rome to appraise the break-in, secure the system and trace those responsible. During the process, the AFOSI team discovered Datastream Cowboy had entered the Rome Air Force computers for the first time on March 25, according to the report. Passwords had been compromised, electronic mail read and deleted and unclassified "battlefield simulation" data copied off the facility. The Rome network was also used as a staging area for penetration of other systems on the Internet. AFOSI investigators initially traced the break-in back one step to the New York City provider, Mindvox. According to the Congressional report, this put the NYC provider under suspicion because "newspaper articles" said Mindvox's computer security was furnished by two "former Legion of Doom members." "The Legion of Doom is a loose-knit computer hacker group which had several members convicted for intrusions into corporate telephone switches in 1990 and 1991," wrote Gelber and Christy. AFOSI then got permission to begin monitoring -- the equivalent of wiretapping -- all communications on the Air Force network. Limited observation of other Internet providers being used during the break-in was conducted from the Rome facilities. Monitoring told the investigators the handles of hackers involved in the Rome break-in were Datastream Cowboy and Kuji. Since the monitoring was of limited value in determining the whereabouts of Datastream Cowboy and Kuji, AFOSI resorted to "their human intelligence network of informants, i.e., stool pigeons, that 'surf the Internet.' Gossip from one AFOSI 'Net stoolie uncovered that Datastream Cowboy was from Britain. The anonymous source said he had e-mail correspondence with Datastream Cowboy in which the hacker said he was a 16-year old living in England who enjoyed penetrating ".MIL" systems. Datastream Cowboy also apparently ran a bulletin board system and gave the telephone number to the AFOSI source. The Air Force team contacted New Scotland Yard and the British law enforcement agency identified the residence, the home of Richard Pryce, which corresponded to Datastream Cowboy's system phone number. English authorities began observing Pryce's phone calls and noticed he was making fraudulent use of British Telecom. In addition, whenever intrusions at the Air Force network in Rome occurred, Pryce's number was seen to be making illegal calls out of Britain. Pryce travelled everywhere on the Internet, going through South America, multiple countries in Europe and Mexico, occasionally entering the Rome network. From Air Force computers, he would enter systems at Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, and the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. Since Pryce was capturing the logins and passwords of the Air Force networks in Rome, he was then able to get into the home systems of Rome network users, defense contractors like Lockheed. By mid-April of 1994 the Air Force was monitoring other systems being used by the British hackers. On the 14th of the month, Kuji logged on to the Goddard Space Center from a system in Latvia and copied data from it to the Baltic country. According to Gelber's report, the AFOSI investigators assumed the worst, that it was a sign that someone in an eastern European country was making a grab for sensitive information. They broke the connection but not before Kuji had copied files off the Goddard system. As it turned out, the Latvian computer was just another system the British hackers were using as a stepping stone; Pryce had also used it to cover his tracks when penetrating networks at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio, via an intermediate system in Seattle, cyberspace.com. The next day, Kuji was again observed trying to probe various systems at NATO in Brussels and The Hague as well as Wright-Patterson. On the 19th, Pryce successfully returned to NATO systems in The Hague through Mindvox. The point Gelber and Christy seem to be trying to make is that Kuji, a 21-year old, was coaching Pryce during some of his attacks on various systems. By this point, New Scotland Yard had a search warrant for Pryce with the plan being to swoop down on him the next time he accessed the Air Force network in Rome. In April, Pryce penetrated a system on the Korean peninsula and copied material off a facility called the Korean Atomic Research Institute to an Air Force computer in Rome. At the time, the investigators had no idea whether the system was in North or South Korea. The impression created is one of hysteria and confusion at Rome. There was fear that the system, if in North Korea, would trigger an international incident, with the hack interpreted as an "aggressive act of war." The system turned out to be in South Korea. During the Korean break-in, New Scotland Yard could have intervened and arrested Pryce. However, for unknown reasons, the agency did not. Those with good memories may recall mainstream news reports concerning Pryce's hack, which was cast as an entry into sensitive North Korean networks. It's worth noting that while the story was portrayed as the work of an anonymous hacker, both the U.S. government and New Scotland Yard knew who the perpetrator was. Further, according to Gelber's report English authorities already had a search warrant for Pryce's house. Finally, on May 12 British authorities pounced. Pryce was arrested and his residence searched. He crumbled, according to the Times of London, and began to cry. Gelber and Christy write that Pryce promptly admitted to the Air Force break-ins as well as others. Pryce confessed he had copied a large program that used artificial intelligence to construct theoretical Air Orders of Battle from an Air Force computer to Mindvox and left it there because of its great size, 3-4 megabytes. Pryce paid for his Internet service with a fraudulent credit card number. At the time, the investigators were unable to find out the name and whereabouts of Kuji. A lead to an Australian underground bulletin board system failed to pan out. On June 23 of this year, Reuters reported that Kuji -- 21-year-old Mathew Bevan -- a computer technician, had been arrested and charged in connection with the 1994 Air Force break-ins in Rome. Rocker Tom Petty sang that even the losers get lucky some time. He wasn't thinking of British computer hackers but no better words could be used to describe the two Englishmen and a two year old chain of events that led to fame as international computer terrorists in front of Congress at the beginning of the summer of 1996. Lacking much evidence for the case of conspiratorial computer-waged campaigns of terror and chaos against the U.S., the makers of Congressional reports resorted to telling the same story over and over, three times in the space of the hearings on the subject. One envisions U.S. Congressmen too stupid or apathetic to complain, "Hey, didn't we get that yesterday, and the day before?" Pryce and Bevan appeared in "Security in Cyberspace" and twice in Government Accounting Office reports AIMD-96-84 and T-AIMD96-92. Jim Christy, the co-author of "Security in Cyberspace" and the Air Force Office of Special Investigations' source for the Pryce case supplied the same tale for Jack Brock, author of the GAO reports. Brock writes, ". . . Air Force officials told us that at least one of the hackers may have been working for a foreign country interested in obtaining military research data or areas in which the Air Force was conducting advanced research." It was, apparently, more wishful thinking. Notes: 1. The Federation of American Scientists has made available on its Web site electronic copies of all the reports mentioned previously. The URL is http://www.fas.org/ . The FAS Web site also features an easy to use search engine which can be used to pull up the Congressional testimony on hackers and network intrusion. These example key words are effective: "Jim Christy," "Datastream Cowboy". LIQUOR IN THE FRONT, POKER IN THE REAR OF THE FLYING SAUCER, II: CRYPT NEWSLETTER'S JOHN ALEXANDER WATCH CONTINUES "The truth is out there. Trust no one." --- currently popular Friday evening bromides taken from US primetime TV Crypt Newsletter's John Alexander watch continues in this issue with a surprising appearance in a new book entitled "Tomorrow's War" (Harcourt, Brace) by British reporter David Shukman. Faithful readers know Alexander as a former Los Alamos National Lab's non-lethal weapons guru with completely freaked out beliefs in the paranormal, most recently profiled in Alexander Cockburn's "Washington Babylon." In the latter book, Alexander is said to be convinced aliens are fooling with our women. Alexander's name crops up infrequently in news articles on super weapons of fabulous nature: glue guns presumably similar to the one used by the Marvel Comics villain Paste-Pot Pete in the mid-Seventies, sonic mortars designed to induce loss of bowel control and emesis, microwave brain melters. One of his most famous quotes, from a 1980 paper in Military Review dealt with telekinesis as a tool of war: "There is sufficient concern about psychic intrusion to cause work to begin on countermeasures such as bioenergy detectors . . . The information presented here will be considered by some to be ridiculous since it does not conform to their view of reality, but some people still believe the world is flat." In "Tomorrow's War," reporter Shukman spends a chapter concentrating on the mostly invisible means of non-lethal war. As part of his research, he requested an interview with Alexander. A Los Alamos National Lab public relations hack balefully warns Shukman not to bait Alexander with questions about actual weapons systems or the guru of non-lethality will shut up like a clam. During the interview, Shukman is taken by how Alexander's eyes seem to bug out of his head when he is speaking about death and US policy on non-lethal weapons. In the book, Shukman claims Alexander says that killing the citizenry of an enemy nation tends to alienate those we wish to conquer because death, and here is the best part, is usually seen as an irreversible condition. Hence the need for non-lethal weapons. Although Alexander no longer appears to enjoy a position at Los Alamos as a policy maker, Shukman's book was completed in 1994 before the guru of non-lethality ended his association with the national lab. Also appearing in the book are science-fiction authors Janet and Chris Morris. Also deeply interested in non-lethal weaponry, they tend to appear in articles and books that cite Alexander, too. The Morrises are said to have traveled to Russia around 1991 and observed a secret brainwashing device manufactured by Soviet Cold War science. Although Shukman writes that it looked legitimate, a careful reading by Crypt Newsletter left the conclusion that it did not work at all. In "Tomorrow's War," Shukman relates how in 1993, he reported a lengthy piece for the BBC focusing on John Alexander, Janet Morris and their interest in the development of non-lethal weaponry for the US military. He adds Janet Morris used the BBC video segment to peddle influence and curry interest in military and government circles. Shukman also alleges the US military is poking around with the development of, for want of a better name, a "fart bomb" that emits a gas capable of stalling motor vehicles. So named the "fart bomb" because of its odor, Shukman writes he witnessed a test in which personnel opened the hood of a running vehicle and sprayed a compound into the air filter. The vehicle then stalled. This proves that "fart bombs" can be deployed an enemy nation highways to halt traffic insists the scientist trying to develop them. Information warfare is also addressed. Military hackers could be employed to bring down the computer networks of enemy nations. The chupacabras of cyberspace, "HERF" weapons that squirt microwave radiation at computers thus fritzing circuitry and shriveling data, are invoked. As a by-product, they can also be turned on civilians. Command-activated computer viruses are being developed to go on the offensive like obedient cyber-zombie warriors in time of need. No evidence of any of this is presented. It is said to be purely the domain of the superscientists of the US military industrial complex. Alternatively, the aura of secrecy which surrounds reporting on the topic could be seen as a mechanism designed to protect various arms of the US military involved in researching it from a public horsewhipping if the news became known to sufficiently large numbers of common sense Americans. More Alexander: A splendid sci-fi character =========================================== Crypt Newsletter reader Cory Tucker alertly intercepted our John Alexander watch alert on the Usenet and supplemented the news stream this issue with an extract from the electronic magazine, Mindnet Journal. In a June 1996 article from the magazine, reporter Armen Victorian quotes Alexander in a 1990 paper presented to the "Forum for Military Applications of Directed Energy (F-MADE)" at Kirtland Air Force Base in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The quote is reproduced: "I submit that we will have to abandon the border-based concept of 'Fortress America' and recognise that our national interests may be endangered from within." This is connected with some standard Alexander pronouncements on the establishment of new values of conflict and the coercion of enemies by means of the usual canisters of non-lethal phlogiston. One can subscribe to the Mindnet Journal thusly, Send message: [subscribe mindnet] to: . However, one of the most damning articles on Alexander was one entitled "The Soft Kill Fallacy" that appeared in a 1994 edition of The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists. Written by Secrecy & Government Bulletin editor Steven Aftergood, it reported puckishly, "John Alexander is by all accounts a resourceful and imaginative individual. He would make a splendid character in a science fiction novel. But he probably shouldn't be spending taxpayer money without adult supervision." But according to Aftergood, Alexander is now a private citizen and no longer associated with Los Alamos, voiding the issue. In a recent telephone interview Aftergood reflected that although he hoped it was not the case it was quite likely that controversy arising from the 1994 TBATS news piece had resulted in Alexander . . . moving on from the national weapons lab. Pesky questions arising from a history laced with talk about mind control, talking to dolphins and diving for the lost continent of Atlantis are too be avoided in weapons lab employment. More recently, Alexander appeared in the March 1996 issue of National Defense, a military industry business and technology journal published in Arlington, Virginia. In "Non-lethal weapons demand expands as missions change," Alexander reveals very little but admits that there are "severe limitations" on the capabilities of current systems. Some of these are the "sticky foams" developed by Sandia National Laboratory and "deployable nets" made for Advanced Research Projects Agency by a company called Foster-Miller. ". . . there is very limited confidence the weapons will do the job required," Alexander writes. Alexander, seemingly glum over the future of non-lethal weaponry, now invokes information warfare as a necessary part of the action. It is, he says, "an independent but complimentary form" of non-lethal conflict. No specifics are given. Since it is completely unnecessary to have any idea what "information warfare" is within the context of the bureaucratized, institutionalized readership at which his article is aimed, it is enough that the magical buzzterm be presented. A search for brainwashing devices ================================= Wherever one finds evidence of the John Alexander legend, Janet Morris the grand dame of non-lethal weapons is always close by. For instance, also panned from the World Wide Web, this description of Janet Morris jumped out of a June 1993 issue of the British magazine, Lobster: "Janet Morris . . . is best known as a science fiction writer but has been a member of the New York Academy of Sciences since 1980 . . ." Crypt Newsletter readers should note anyone, even you, can be a member of the New York Academy of Sciences as long as you subscribe to the organization's publishing organ, The Sciences. Lobster continues, "She worked on a research project investigating the effects of mind on probability in computer systems . . . In a recent telephone conversation with [the reporter], Janet Morris confirmed John Alexander's involvement in mind control and psychotronic projects in the Los Alamos National Laboratories. Alexander and his team have recently been working with Dr. 'Igor Smirnov', a psychologist from the Moscow Institute of Psychocorrelations. They were invited to the U.S. after Janet Morris' visit to Russia in 1991. There she was shown the technique which was pioneered by the Russian Department of Psycho-Correction at Moscow Medical Academy. The Russians employ a technique to electronically analyse the human mind in order to influence it. They input subliminal command messages, using key words transmitted in 'white noise' or music. Using an infrasound very low frequency-type transmission, the acoustic psycho-correction message is transmitted via bone conduction . . . " In essence, this is a description of the same brainwashing device cited in "Tomorrow's War" by reporter Shukman. Incidentally, Crypt Newsletter also found this excerpt in a larger article attributed to Nexus, an Australian New Age magazine (see below). Lobster, in more information culled from the World Wide Web, is an unusual political journal from Britain. Founded in 1983 by Stephen Dorril and Robin Ramsay, it covers spying and secrecy issues in Britain and the U.S. Janet Morris: Environmentally friendly information warfare ========================================================== In a 1995 paper published by the US Air Force, Janet Morris and colleagues signal they, like John Alexander, have hitched their dray to information warfare as well as non-lethality. "Antilethal" weaponry is also added to the stew. In an article entitled "Weapons of Mass Protection: Nonlethality, Information Warfare, and Airpower in the age of Chaos" for an edition of AirPower Journal, Janet and Chris Morris insist conventional air power -- the dropping of iron bombs on the unpopular -- is no longer the correct tool for suppressing the future equivalents of "Serbian warplanes pounding Bosnian religious sites or a resurgence of Saddam Hussein's Iraqi adventurism, Somalian warlords firing on United Nations peacekeepers, or Rwandan refugees streaming across uncontrollable borders . . ." Instead, a cocktail of non-lethal and antilethal weapons plus information warfare is the answer, "delivering results that are life conserving, environmentally friendly, and fiscally responsible." Unfortunately, very little of the paper is actually devoted to explaining precisely what constitutes information warfare and "antilethal" weaponry. Instead, the authors concentrate on educating the reader about the evolution of warmaking theory from Sun Tzu to Machiavelli to Karl von Clausewitz with a little philosophy from John Locke thrown in on the side. The only missing element is citation of the Schlieffen plan but this is more than made up for by the proclamation that it is now "the age of chaos" and pungent usage of the terms "paradigm" and "international rule of law." Since it is "the age of chaos," the current time of combat must be reclassified as "The Era of Wars of Divestiture." A war of divestiture, write the Morrises, is a war in which we, along with the military of the United States, "divest" the enemy of his ability to wage war and mess up the international rule of law. In wars of this nature, the US military then protects the "innocents" and preserves "the environment from destruction . . ." caused by enemies who start wars that blow up the countryside and people. To do this, the threshold of war must be lowered so that non-lethal and "antilethal" weapons, as well as information war, can be unleashed on the enemy before the environment is despoiled. "But what is non-lethality?" you ask. The Morrises have it covered. "Nonlethality categorizes nonlethal weapons as . . . nonlethal and antilethal." Clear? Anyway, the non-lethal technologies are ones the Crypt Newsletter reader has heard much of already. They are "acoustic," "high-power microwave" (the HERF gun); "non-nuclear electromagnetic pulse" (HERF gun again); "obscurants" (smoke shells); "glues and slicks"; "supercaustics" (new word for acids and bases); "magnetohydrodynamics" (Crypt has no idea but neither does anyone else, really); "information warfare" (more HERF guns, computer viruses, hackers); and "soldier protection" (bullet proof armor and helmets)." Antilethal technologies are slightly different. These include any weapon that can kill the enemy but are mostly meant only to destroy equipment or kill smaller numbers of civilians than usual. That's right! It's another name for a "smart bomb." The Morrises warn that it is time to act now on information warfare because "rogue states" and "subnational and pannational groups of religious fundamentalists" will not be deterred from using its tactics against us. It is the property of computer hackers" and, "Its weapons are available worldwide." "Its systems can be cobbled together from electronics stores on the streets of any city in the world or can be ordered by mail." Par for articles of this nature: Zero examples are given, no references on the matter cited. Crypt Newsletter will fill in the blanks for the reader and assume the Morrises are somewhat familiar with things like the Virus Creation Laboratory toolkit or CD-ROMs of computer viruses and hacker software and that this is what they're aiming at when they mention the easy availability of information warfare technology. Crypt will add they _probably_ mean the kinds of hackers like Datastream Cowboy who broke into the Air Force Material Command in Rome, NY, but was arrested anyway and curled up in a ball and cried when New Scotland Yard came to take him away. Attached to the end of the article is a disclaimer: "The conclusions and opinions expressed in this document are those of the author cultivated in the freedom of expression, academic environment of Air University. They do not reflect the official position of the US Government, Department of Defense, the United States Air Force or the Air University." Therefore, one assumes the article could mean something if the President or a general thinks it is cool, or nothing at all if it ever proves to be a source of embarrassment. Still more UFOs, brainwashing by microwave and Alexander the PENGUIN ==================================================================== Whenever bumping into the reputations of John Alexander and the weirdo aspects of "non-lethal" weapons, one must also be aware of their proximity to the gray area of the paranormal. For example, from the Australian magazine, Nexus, attributed to Armen Victorian, apparently the same reporter from the Mindnet Journal, retrieved from the Web and Usenet: "[Alexander is] on the board of a 'remote viewing' company called PSI-TECH . . . "PSI-TECH has received several government contracts. For example, during the Gulf War crisis the Department of Defense asked it to use remote viewing to locate Saddam's Scud missiles sites." [For those unfamiliar with the term "remote viewing," Crypt Newsletter supplies a glossary definition, below]. The article goes on to confusingly link Alexander to a "UFO working group" in the Defense Intelligence Agency and a very perplexing plot to disseminate disinformation about UFO's. In this plot Alexander has a secret codename: PENGUIN. The Federation of American Scientists' Steven Aftergood added his last sighting of Alexander came from a UFO magazine that spotted the guru of non-lethality near Las Vegas making preparations for the inevitable and final arrival of aliens from outer space. So much of this flyblown information is in circulation that a paranoid might think it part of a black project cover operation designed to deliberately spread confusion and ludicrous hearsay on the subject. Indeed, a quick survey of Usenet messages show literally more than a hundred recent posts devoted to John Alexander: Alexander and psycho-electronic mind bending; Alexander and acoustic bullets; Alexander as part of a cabal of spies; Alexander and machines which are said to cause loss of friction in the bowels; Alexander and top secret projects operating out of the apparently real Beverly Hills company, Psi-Tech, using psychic power to procure intelligence data by acts of high-tech conjuring. Some consist of fragments of news stories; some are complete magazine reprints and extracts. Many are iterations which seem to have been spawned from older stories resulting in a conflation greater than the sum of its parts. If the HERF gun is the chupacabra of cyberspace, the legend of John Alexander is its equivalent of H. P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos. The cynic cannot help but notice it would seem quite impossible to write anything on the subject without inadvertently adding to the endless cyberspatial sucking black hole of John Alexander lore. A glossary of terms =================== antilethal: n. Opposite the spirit of maximum lethality but still deadly. Usage: The _antilethal_ precision munition had incinerated only two hundred civilians when it landed on a bunker in downtown Baghdad so the generals could not understand why the international newsmedia became so irritated. hacker: n. In this context, a young man very adept with computers and networks, possibly a pawn of Libya or North Korea. Usage: Indeed it was good the _hacker_ had been apprehended in his single apartment in Raleigh because the government feared he was only a step away from bringing down the entire system of international banking. HERF weapon: n. Always suspected but never seen, the HERF - or High Energy Radio Frequency - gun is responsible for much nettlesome corporate computer failure nationwide, according to information warriors. Usage: Dodson was relieved the computer security guru had been able to convince management that the corrupted data on the network was the work of an _HERF weapon_ attack on the corporation, not the boobytrapped pornographic bit of software he had obtained from alt.sex.watersports. information warfare: n. In this context, everything and nothing. What hackers, Libyan agents, rogue nation-states, international criminals, and pannational groups of religious fundamentalists will conduct against America in the near future. Usage: America On-Line was besieged by a series of vexing and seemingly pointless information warfare attacks conducted by teenage hackers armed with AOL Hell, a program that automated the sending of scrofulous electronic messages to other customers. international rule of law: that which is invoked when another country not in the West defies the military, political or business interests of the United States. Usage: The Washington Post quoted sources at the Government Accounting Office who maintained that pariah states in the Third World, their exact identities classified, had broken the _international rule of law_ by enlisting hackers to attack U.S. networks through the Internet. paradigm: n. pattern, an example, a model. Usage: The pronouncements of John Alexander and Janet Morris were the paradigm for the phlogiston of non-lethal orthodoxy. remote viewing: use of psychic means to conjure up an accurate image of something not physically observable by the "remote viewer." Usage: The generals of U.S. Army intelligence were very impressed when the non-lethal weapons guru described Muammar Ghaddafi sitting in a dwelling somewhere near a sandy desert, all through the science of _remote viewing_. superscientists: n. The engineers, technicians and researchers who develop weapons for the US military under the cover of black projects. In glossy mainstream magazines they appear always omniscient and generally anonymously. Usage: The non-lethal weapons guru at Sandia National Laboratory provided sage guidance for a crack team of _superscientists_ engaged in Project Tacit Laurel, an effort to build an ultra/infra-sonic cannon capable of inducing ineradicable, debilitating flatus in crowds of hostile foreigners and terrorists. LUDWIG COMPUTER VIRUS BOOK TO RETAIL FOR $395.00 The newest book from Mark Ludwig's American Eagle Publications will retail for the astonishing price of $395.00 cash money. Entitled "Computer Virus SuperTechnology 1996," the book focuses almost exclusively on writing computer viruses for the Win95 operating system. Ludwig commented that since specialty publications like Virus Bulletin cost a similar amount for a one year subscription, he was moved to ask a commensurate amount for "Virus SuperTechnology." Ludwig added he had already received 160 advance orders for the book. Since the book's production cost comes out to between one and two dollars per copy, as an exercise it is left to the reader to perform the arithmetic and calculate the net gain on an initial print run of five hundred. The unusual cost prices "Virus SuperTechnology" almost completely out of reach of the archetype teen virus-writer but squarely in the domain of corporate domestic and international computer security organizations, software developers, the U.S. government, foreign powers, military planners engaged in "information warfare" projects and the occasional lunatic with a large amount of discretionary cash. ====================================================================== In more Ludwig news, anti-virus software author Fridrik Skulason declared at the end of July he was "seriously considering suing Mark Ludwig" in a post to the Usenet's alt.comp.virus newsgroup. "It seems that his latest CD-ROM includes a copy of [my] F-PROT anti-virus program, including the file that specifically states that distributing it together with viruses is absolutely forbidden," Skulason wrote. He added he was interested in securing a lawyer willing to prosecute a case against Ludwig based upon his complaint. Asked for comment, Ludwig was indifferent, laughing a moment later. "Let him sue," he said. Ludwig indicated he felt any suit would be meretricious. "What could he do? Take my computer? I doubt he could even find my office." THE KAISER OF MICROSOFT IS MOVED TO AN AIRCRAFT CARRIER AFTER BOMB SCARE "We will roast the Great Satan in his lair." --Ayatollah Khomeini, on America around the time of the hostage crisis On the first day of August, the Los Angeles Times ran a small article in the business section that mentioned Bill Gates had been forced to move a conference to an aircraft carrier in Seattle harbor because of a bomb scare. The article focused on Microsoft's use of WindowsNT to stimulate acquisition of Win95 by those in corporations who hadn't yet jumped on the bandwagon. This was part of a larger plan to position the company as a major provider of "content" for the Internet. [1] In addition, Microsoft-NBC, a new 24-hour news channel is part of the grand march. Even more "content" is to be furnished by a travel magazine called . . . and this is the truth, Mungo Park. The most interesting part of the news blip was the bomb scare. "We are willing to take substantial risks" said Bill in interview from the redoubt of the aircraft carrier Constellation, at anchor off Seattle. Indeed. Three hundred reporters and Bill were evacuated to the aircraft carrier after a bomb scare at the Bell Harbor International Conference Center, where the Kaiser was orchestrating his press conference. It was said the Constellation was in town for "a fair over the weekend." No truth to the rumors the Kaiser was inspecting it before purchase as the foundation for MSNAF, the Microsoft Naval Air Force, or that he was seen reading the old Strategic Air Command treatise, "Bombing as a Means of Social Coercion." [2] However, it is true the Kaiser's new home resembles a high-tech bunker and that he has been securing art and culture at a frenetic pace: the electronic rights to the photos of Ansel Adams, the images of the Barnes collection and one big-deal Washington propagandist, Michael Kinsley. Notes: 1. Crypt Newsletter advises readers "content" is the in vogue euphemism for major bull in these categories: straight advertising; infotainment; exhortations to buy software, hardware, advice, durable goods, airline tickets or preferred stock; pictures of naked or semi-nude women; resume and "career" services aimed at the emergent nation of American gaberlunzies created by the same types of computers that run the Web; hagiography of movie and rock stars; rampaging hucksterism; and panegyrics devoted to the sovereigns of financial swindle. 2. Some smart alecks have suggested Crypt Newsletter makes up book titles like "Bombing as a Means of Social Coercion." Well, yes and no. "Bombing as a Means of Social Coercion" was suggested by the real book, "Bombing to Win" by Robert Drake. Despite a title superior to "Bombing as a Means of Social Coercion," "Bombing to Win" is actually an examination of the ineffectiveness of strategic bombing as a tool for achieving absolute military, political and social aims. Shhhh. Don't tell the Kaiser. SOME NOT SO OBVIOUS BUSINESS WITH DOS IN WIN95 by Stephen Poole When Windows 95 was released to much hype last August, you could read in any number of computer magazines that Windows 95 "no longer needs DOS!" Windows 95 was presented as a seamless, integrated 32-bit operating system with all of the old traces of klunky old real-mode DOS removed. That was misleading nonsense. While it's true that a 32-bit DOS system is used with Windows 95, that system is *only* active while the Windows 95 environment is active, i.e.., while the Explorer desktop is active. At all other times, the system is in a state that's quite similar to the older DOS 5-6.22 regime with HIMEM and EMM386 handling upper memory. This has obvious implications for system security, especially in anti-virus work, so I wanted to take a closer look at it. A few simple tests will demonstrate the key points. The first test is to start an MS-DOS prompt and run the command "MEM /DEBUG | MORE" or a program such as QEMM's MANIFEST. If you've done this under DOS 5-6/Win 3.x, you may be startled at how familiar the memory layout is. Look closely, and you'll see the FILES, HIMEM, and even our old friend WIN.COM, in memory. The next test is better. But first, let me explain a few things. As a programmer, I frequently want to exit Windows, make some changes, and then restart Windows. It's a real pain to have to reboot the system each time. Suspecting that there is a 16-bit DOS system hiding somewhere "under" Windows 95, how can I get to it? And how can I prevent Win95 from hanging the system when "Shut Down" is selected at the end of the session? First, let's set things up so that we'll get a DOS prompt when we start the computer. (NOTE: The following isn't recommended for novice computer users.) 1. Click the MS-DOS Prompt icon again. When you get to the DOS prompt, switch to the root bootable subdirectory -- this is "C:\" on most systems. 2. Enter the command "ATTRIB MSDOS.SYS -s -h -r" at the prompt to make MSDOS.SYS visible to your editor. Under Win95, MSDOS.SYS is actually just a hidden ASCII text file containing some configuration info. 3. Use your text editor to open MSDOS.SYS. Under the [options] section, you should see: BootGUI=1 Change this to: BootGUI=0 Be careful not to change anything else in the file. Save the file, exit the DOS box and shut Windows down. Now reboot the computer. You should come back to a normal-looking DOS prompt. At this point, you could enter "win" at the prompt, just as you did under Win 3.1x. Win95 would start. But . . . when you Shut Down, the computer still hangs, same as before. (Try it.) We're halfway there . . . how can we get *back* to that DOS prompt when Windows 95 shuts down? This is pretty simple. All you have to do is put the "win" invocation in a .BAT file, so that you're starting Windows 95 indirectly. Create a little batch file named WINTEST.BAT containing these lines: win mode co80 (You can use a number of different DOS commands after the "win". I chose "mode co80" to clear the screen. All we're really want to do is tell the system that we have something else that needs to be done when Windows shuts down. Otherwise, Windows will still hang the computer.) If you then enter "wintest" at the DOS prompt, the batch file will execute, and Windows 95 will start up. But this time, when you shut it down, you'll get the "wait" screen, followed by "it's now safe to turn off" . . . followed by a DOS prompt! How about that! Finally, some people might argue that these tests aren't fair, because we're forcing Windows 95 to load some DOS components. Doesn't this mean that it might be "different", somehow, when operating under these conditions? To settle that question, here's one more test: Go back to your MSDOS.SYS file and restore it to its original state (change "BootGUI=0" back to "BootGUI=1"). Then insert the line "Logo=0" under the [options]. All this does is turn off the pretty startup screen, so that you can see what's happening during the boot. To eliminate any possibility that extraneous DOS software is being loaded, temporarily rename your CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT files to CONFIG.BAK and AUTOEXEC.BAK. Shut down Windows and reboot the computer. This time, you'll get a DOS-style startup screen. Watch closely, and you'll see HIMEM and EMM386 load anyway, even though there's no CONFIG.SYS file to tell DOS to load them! (Hmmm . . . why would a 32-bit operating system be loading some old DOS-style memory management stuff?) If you try this, don't get nervous when the screen goes dark, and stays dark for some time before you see the Explorer desktop. Since you told Windows not to display the "logo," you get a blank screen.) To restore the default behavior, delete the "Logo=0" line, use ATTRIB -s -h -r to change MSDOS.SYS back to a hidden file, rename your CONFIG.BAK and AUTOEXEC.BAK files to the original file names and reboot the computer. It seems like DOS hasn't really gone away after all. And this means that even a pre-configured Win95 system straight out of the box IS vulnerable to at least some older DOS viruses. TECHNICAL DETAILS FOR THOSE WHO ARE INTERESTED: =============================================== Windows 95 is basically a souped-up Win 3.1 (let's call it Win 4.0) running atop a souped-up DOS 6.22 (we'll call it DOS 7.0). While there are some nice enhancements (such as long file names and 32-bit DOS, at least while the Windows 95 environment is active), the apparent "seamless integration" itself is primarily smoke and mirrors. By displaying a graphics logo during the bootup, for example, Win95 can hide the fact that it's actually loading HIMEM.SYS and EMM386.EXE -- just as it did under old DOS. The system's startup code, the code loaded from the system area of the machine on start, automatically loads HIMEM.SYS and EMM386.EXE even if you have no CONFIG.SYS file or have left those lines out of it. It then executes your AUTOEXEC.BAT file, assuming that you have one, and finishes by executing the equivalent of a "win" command entered at the DOS prompt -- just as if "win" were the last command in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file. At that point, you're still under a fairly normal DOS regime with upper memory support. Only after WIN.COM starts VMM32.VXD, which sets up the VxDs, are you actually running under a 32-bit protected-mode system. Here's another important point. When you start a DOS program or an MS-DOS Prompt in Windows 95, the system will create a special "DOS box" just for the program (also called a "virtual 8086 machine", or "V86 box"). The system will essentially create a copy of _whatever_was_in_memory_ at the moment that WIN.COM was started for this purpose. And if a virus was in memory just before WIN.COM started, you'll have a copy of that virus in each DOS box! When you select "Shut Down" from the Start Menu, WIN.COM regains control and displays the message, "it's now safe to shut down", followed by a system hang. The pertinent machine instructions in WIN.COM look something like this ... cli ;Disable interrupts . . ;(Do some other stuff here) . lockup: hlt ;Halt instruction jmp lockup ;Loop forever, producing a hang To summarize, the complete sequence, from bootup to shutdown, looks something like this: INITIAL BOOTUP: BIOS is in control, regardless of operating system SYSTEM BOOTUP: IO.SYS takes control, sets up 16-bit DOS/HIMEM/EMM386 WIN95 STARTUP: WIN.COM starts VMM32.VXD, sets up the 32-bit system WIN95 IN OPERATION: 32-bit protected mode system, DOS in 32-bit VxDs WIN95 SHUTDOWN: Back to the equivalent of 16-bit DOS/HIMEM/EMM386 * (* this last one isn't strictly accurate in all cases, but it'll work for our purposes.) Simply put, the only time that you're not under a 16-bit or DOS/HIMEM regime is when Win95 is in actual control of the PC -- when you've got the Explorer Desktop. It's possible, of course, that some unusual configurations of Windows 95 won't exhibit the precise behavior described above. But in my tests, the basic sequence outlined above holds true for every configuration that I've tried. Finally, Microsoft does keep track of what people are saying about Windows95 and has recently begun adding features to make it more difficult for programmers to use "undocumented functions" that exist in Windows. Most programmers have to resort to these types of "undocumented functions" to do the really cool stuff. Under Windows, you can call a system function either by name or by "ordinal." Without getting needlessly technical, you can consider this a function "number." Most of the really juicy undocumented functions must be called by this "number" method. You can't get at them any other way. Windows has a (documented) way to get the number for a function that you want to use. It has worked fine in the past but recent releases of Windows 95 now return a garbage value if you try to get certain system function numbers. Matt Pietrik investigated and discovered that Microsoft has added a little XOR encryption, a garbling value called the "obsfucator" (sic). Seriously, that's the name of it! Anytime someone asks for the number of an undocumented system function, the system will garble the true number with this "obsfucator" value! (Those interested in more should see "Windows 95 Programming Secrets" by Matt Pietrik.) [Stephen Poole is one of the authors of the ARF Anti-virus.] LETTERS TO THE EDITOR: LUDWIG'S $395.00 BOOK NOT AN OBSTACLE ============================================================ Crypt: OK. [Ludwig's virus book] is cheap compared to my own computer that I bought with cash as a teenager for a full 3800 Australia dollars. So I would not say that teen virus-writers will not buy it. Hell, a few teen virus-writers buy the book together and one has a scanner to make a mass copy on the Net. Hello, every teen virus-writer on the Internet has it. Hacker point of view: Harder it is to do, the more fun to complete. Just another target. pcdolding, CRYLUX, Australia [Let's see if I have this straight. You're writing that you paid almost $4000 for a computer but you nevertheless advocate use of a team to steal a book of computer viruses that only costs a tenth of that, all for the community of virus-writers on the 'Net. And who says "hackers" don't know how to deal with the media!?! --Crypt] CRYPT WEBSITE DEEMED GOOD ========================= Crypt: Well, basically I'm new to the computer and the world of the Internet. I've been moving around a lot overseas so I never had a chance to own or use a computer for very long. I'm very interested though, now that I've tried it. It's fascinating, all of these networks and highways [and] how they're connected. I've read your newsletters and I find them very interesting . . . I've always been interested in hackers and would like to acquire the knowledge to do so myself. If you could give me any information that would help me understand these things it would be great. Thanks for your help. Your web page is awesome. -Jess Crypt: Thank you for the information given. Sometime, somewhere, someone will put it all to good use, maybe even me. Matthew Graves -=The Crypt Newsletter welcomes thoughtful mail from readers at crypt@sun.soci.niu.edu. Published letters may be edited for length and clarity or anonymized to protect the naive from themselves.=- REACHING CRYPT NEWSLETTER Send software, books, subscription orders ($10.00/year) to: George Smith Crypt Newsletter 1635 Wagner St. Pasadena, CA 91106 E-mail: crypt@sun.soci.niu.edu or 70743.1711@compuserve.com CRYPT NEWSLETTER HYPERTEXT If you're reading this, you don't have it. Crypt Hypertext can be registered through Compuserve's on-line SWREG service. To purchase a copy of Crypt Hypertext through your CompuServe account simply use the GO menu and enter the keyword: SWREG. You will be presented with a menu to identify your geographic location. When prompted to search the software database enter the number: # 9228 or the name CRYPT NEWSLETTER HYPERTEXT V. 1.0 and provide the requested information. You will receive a copy of Crypt Hypertext through US Mail. Operating Systems - DOS, WINDOWS Cost: $30.00 + $4.00 shipping and handling in US, Canada and Mexico. + $8.00 shipping and handling worldwide. The database contains not only Crypt Newsletter 1992 - 95 but also a great deal of additional material and unpublished notes. Where appropriate, additions have also been made to old issues and articles to provide current perspective and background. The database also contains a keyworded glossary and extensive subject index spanning the length and breadth of the newsletter. Cut and paste any information to your customized specification. In the database you'll find comprehensive stories, tutorials and news on: --the computer virus underground and virus-writers --the anti-virus industry --on-line culture and sociology --book reviews of current titles in security --annals of computer crime & computer virus spread --virus descriptions and history --walkthrough simulations, imagery and displays - aural and visual - from computer viruses and controversial virus-making software toolkits --discussion of legal issues with regard to computer viruses and related computer crime --extensive companion material for the author's book, "The Virus Creation Labs" --review of the mainstream media: the shams and scams reported as real news. Take a skeptic's look at the information highway! The Crypt Newsletter database is also extensible. Future hypertext issues, distributed through CIS forums, can easily be copied to the database's directory on your home computer and seamlessly integrated into the collection. The complete index of topics 1992 - 96 is on the Crypt News Web page: http://www.soci.niu.edu/~crypt CRYPT HYPERTEXT ORDER FORM --------------------------------------------------------- By Mail: Return this form along with your remittance to: COMSEC Ltd. 1545 Waukegan Road Suite 2 Glenview, Illinois 60025-2143 Orders: 800-754-8214 Support: 847-729-3565 Fax: 847-729-3575 Questions To: crypt@sun.soci.niu.edu 70743.1711@compuserve.com ORDER: [ ] ____ Crypt Hypertext(s) @ $30.00 each. [ ] Regular mail shipping, please add $4.00. [ ] US Priority Mail, please add $6.00. Checks and money orders must be in U.S. dollars drawn on a U.S. bank. Do Not Enclose Cash. Total enclosed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $______________ Payment by: [] Check [] Money Order SHIP TO: Name _____________________________________________________ Address 1 ________________________________________________ Address 2 ________________________________________________ City __________________________ State/Province ___________ Zip/Postal Code ________________ Country _________________ Telephone (______)________________________________________ CRYPT ON COMPUSERVE Crypt Newsletter is now concentrated in two places on Compuserve. GO CRYPTNEWS brings the user to dedicated Crypt Newsletter message and file bases! For example, in addition to the usual issues Crypt maintains copies of electronic documents like the Federation of American Scientists' Secrecy & Government Bulletin and the recent GAO report on hacking incidents at Department of Defense. GO NCSAFORUM will bring users into the National Computer Security Association Infosec forum. This forum features a great deal of specific and general information on computer security as well as Crypt Newsletter in its attached file libraries and message bases. CRYPT NEWSLETTER WORLD WIDE WEB HOME PAGE You can visit Crypt & The Virus Creation Labs on the World Wide Web, download back issues and sample a chapter from VCL! Set your browser to: URL: http://www.soci.niu.edu/~crypt ---------------------------------------------------------------- If you quite enjoy the Crypt Newsletter, editor George Smith's book, The Virus Creation Labs: A Journey Into the Underground," will really flip your wig. In it Smith unravels the intrigue behind virus writers and their scourges, the anti-virus software developers and security consultants on the information highway. What people are saying about THE VIRUS CREATION LABS: "I couldn't stop reading it . . . As hype continues to build about security on the Internet and movies like _Hackers_ ooze the real hackers into the mainstream arena, this book is definite apropos material for the time. Read it! A+" ---The Net magazine, February 1996 "[VIRUS CREATION LABS] is informative and stunningly incisive . . . " ---Secure Computing, October 1995 "George Smith . . . takes a look at the world of virus writers and anti-virus software vendors in a style similar to that of 'Cyberpunks' -- anecdotal, humorous and revealing . . . a lucid and entertaining read." ---Computer Security Journal "There are relatively few books on the 'computer underground' that provide richly descriptive commentary and analysis of personalities and culture that simultaneously grab the reader with entertaining prose. Among the classics are Cliff Stoll's 'The Cuckoo's Egg,' Katie Hafner and John Markoff's 'Cyberpunk,' and Bruce Sterling's 'The Hacker Crackdown.' Add George Smith's 'The Virus Creation Labs' to the list . . . 'Virus Creation Labs' is about viruses as M*A*S*H is about war!" ---Jim Thomas, Computer underground Digest 7.18, March 5, 1995 "THE VIRUS CREATION LABS dives into the hoopla of the Michelangelo media blitz and moves on to become an engaging, articulate, wildly angry diatribe on the world of computer virus writers . . . Expert reporting." ----McClatchy NewsWire -------------------------order form------------------------- Yes, I want my wig flipped and wish to receive a copy of George Smith's "The Virus Creation Labs: A Journey Into the Underground" (American Eagle, ISBN 0-929408-09-8). Price: $12.95/copy plus $2.50 shipping per book (add $7.50 overseas) NAME: _____________________________________________ ADDRESS: __________________________________________ CITY/STATE/ZIP: __________________________________ Payment method: ___ Master Charge ___ Money Order ___ Check ___ Visa Credit Card # ___________________________________________ Expiration date _________________________________________ Name: ____________________________ Orders can be taken by voice or fax through regular phone number and/or 1-800 number in USA. COD welcome. American Eagle: 1-800-719-4957 1-520-367-1621 POB 1507 Show Low, AZ 85901 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS =============== This issue's software comment provided by the inimitable Stephen Poole. ------------------------------------------------------------- George Smith, Ph.D., edits the Crypt Newsletter from Pasadena, CA. copyright 1996 Crypt Newsletter. All rights reserved.