Virus Victims Go On The Offense

Virus Victims Go On The Offense
By: Charles Randolf

A former hacker called DTMF has gotten fed up with all the virus problems on the internet and with several other ethical hackers, are fighting back.

DTMF is keeping his identity a secret and agreed to talk to us anonymously
through an application which deletes itself and its traces which was sent
via file on a public FTP server in Sweden via anonymous login.

"Since 1995 I have been infected with Back Orifice, Win CIH, Happy99, and several other viruses... Most have originated from outside of the USA."

I have written a "smart" virus that will seek out virus programmers systems
and infect it, with the intent of damage. The smart virus will target only systems
that contain files and source code that are typical of programming viruses.

The Anti-Virus Militants
He says he is not alone in this effort and hopes to put up a homepage to get more members involved in virus education and security in general. He is also compiling
a blacklist of sites and people who program viruses in order to put an end to
spreading virus creation activities.

"I want to send a message - if you're a virus maker - your days are numbered."

"I Do not doubt that some anti-viral software makers are intentionally creating viruses - or having them created in order to sell newer copies of their software."

DTMF goes on to say that if you want to protect yourself always have the latest
anti-virus programs available, and particularly recommends "The Cleaner" a trojan
virus detection program.

"People don't realize how vulnerable their systems are when downloading...
Until now we were unarmed against our attackers - but we are using these machines of war against them now."

You can download The Cleaner 2.0 here:
http://www.homestead.com/moosoft/

The program is shareware and can be registered at a very fair price.

DTMF has been hacking since 1989 and programming since 1983, he
exposed break ins and reported them to IBM, University of Michigan,
plus many others and has consulted with several large corporations.
He has published many books/articles, and is currently a ethical
hacker for a small security company and is studying to get his CISSP
certification..

Editors Note: WebNovice does not condone any virus creation activities
or using any software to inflict damage to computer systems. We suggest
anyone considering writing virus programs to consider the legal risks you
are taking and would encourage you NOT to.

For more information on trojans check out our back issues.