Approaching Zero by Paul Mungo;Bryan Clough

Author:Paul Mungo;Bryan Clough
Language: eng
Format: azw
Tags: Computer viruses, Computer hackers, Social Science, True Crime, Computers, General, Computer crimes, Viruses, Political Science, Security
ISBN: 9780679409380
Publisher: Random House
Published: 1992-01-15T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter 6

HACKING FOR PROFIT

Inevitably there are people in the computer underworld who use their skills to make money--legally or illegally. Hacking into suppliers to steal goods, or looting credit card companies, has become established practice. But there seems to be little commercial potential in viruses--unless it becomes part of a scam.

In December 1989 the first such scam appeared. The virus was used as a blackmail weapon to frighten computer users into paying for protection. Jim Bates, a free-lance computer security consultant, was one of the first to examine the blackmail demand delivered on an apparently ordinary computer diskette. He had received a call earlier that day from Mark Hamilton, the technical editor of a British computer magazine called PC Business World. Mark had sounded worried: "There's apparently been a trojan diskette sent out to PC Business World customers. We don't know anything about it. If we send you a copy, can you look into it?"

Jim runs his little business from his home in a commuter suburb ith the misleadingly bucolic name of Wigston Magna, near ~icester, in the English Midlands. Though he had other work to at the time, he agreed to "look into it"- -which meant, effecvely, disassembling the bug. It would be a time-consuming task. "What does it do?" he asked.

"We don't know. It may be some sort of blackmail attempt."

To Jim, the concept of viral blackmail sounded unlikely. As far as he knew, no one had ever made a penny out of writing virUses. It was said that if there was any money in writing bugs, Bulgaria would be one of the richest countries in Europe; but instead it remained one of the poorest.

At 5:30 that afternoon, December 12,1989, the package from PC Business World arrived. As promised, it contained a diskette, of the sort sent out to the magazine's readers; it also contained a copy of a blue instruction leaflet that had accompanied the diskette.

Jim examined the leaflet closely. "Read this license agreement carefully [and] if you do not agree with the terms and conditions . . . do not use the software," it began. It then stated that the program on the diskette was leased to operators for either 365 uses at a price of $189, or the lifetime of their hard disk at a price of $389. "PC Cyborg Corporation," it continued, "also reserves the right [sic] to use program mechanisms to ensure termination of the use of the program [which] will adversely affect other program applications."

So far, Jim thought, it read much like a normal software licensing agreement, except for the warning that the program might "adversely effect other program applications."

But farther down in the small print on the leaflet was a paragraph that made him sit up. "You are advised of the most serious consequences of your failure to abide by the terms of this agreement: your conscience may haunt you for the rest of your life . . . and your computer will stop functioning normally [authors' italics]."

This, Jim thought, was carrying the concept of a licensing agreement too far.

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