CRYPT NEWSLETTER 27 September 1994 Editor: Urnst Kouch (George Smith, Ph.D.) Media Critic: Mr. Badger (Andy Lopez) INTERNET: 70743.1711@compuserve.com or Urnst.Kouch@comsec.org COMPUSERVE: 70743,1711 Crypt Newsletter BBS: 818.683.0854 [The Crypt Newsletter is a monthly electronic magazine which features stories on computers, society, science and technology. Some satirical content included.] IN THIS ISSUE: Two strikes and software piracy in Massachusetts . . . Mr. Badger, a present day Spengler . . . GET SMARTER: Demystifying the National Reconnaissance Office . . . REVIEWED: Tom Clancy's "Debt of Honor" and "The UNIX-Haters Handbook," vomit bags included . . . THEY'LL DO IT EVERY TIME: On stun batons, underwater fuses and Michael Schrage's world of cyberpizza . . . THE SPA, SOFTWARE PIRACY, TWO STRIKES AND DAVEY JONES LOCKER Massachusetts authorities are saying 43-year-old Richard D. Kenadek may be the first computer bulletin board system operator to be indicted for alleged federal copyright infringement. According to Crypt Newsletter news records, they appear not to have a good memory. On the last day of August, the FBI raided the Millbury, Massachusetts home of Richard D. Kenadek, arresting him in connection with the alleged operation of a pirate bulletin board system called Davey Jones Locker. Charged with conspiracy and copyright infringement, the man was also sued by the Software Publishers Association (SPA) which prosecuted the investigation along with the FBI. Kenadek was accused of the usual SPA no-no's leveled at operators of pirate systems: the distribution of copyrighted retail software without payment of the owners of the programs and charging access fees to users for the express purpose of making a profit off distribution of the software. According to wire news, Kenadek could be slapped with six years in prison and fines up to $275,000. He would also lose all of his computer equipment used in servicing and maintaining the bulletin board system. Paradoxically, this is not the first time the FBI has stormed the home of Richard Kenadek. In June of 1992, the FBI first raided Kenadek and the Davey Jones Locker bulletin board. At the time, Bill McMullin, the FBI's p.r. man in the Boston bureau would not discuss the raid on the Millbury man except to say it was the first of its kind handled by his office. McMullin's counterpart in Washington, D.C., Nestor Michnyak, did say that "Our involvement in white-collar crime investigations of this nature is spotty, at best . . . it's not a top priority." During this period, representatives of the Business Software Alliance and Software Publishing Association, trade groups which help direct, or assist - depending on who's talking - the FBI's investigations into software piracy openly smacked their lips at the prospect of taking Kenadek down on strengthened software piracy laws which set him up for serious jail time and fines, if convicted. Apparently, the trade groups were premature in their hopes. However, the SPA appears to have a long memory and uncommon tenacity. At the time of the original arrest in mid-1992, the software groups, in conjunction with the FBI, claimed Kenadek and the Davey Jones Locker system charged a $99 annual fee from callers for access to retail software. MR. BADGER CONTEMPLATES OUR CIVILIZATION Nothing is so precious to a bureaucracy as its enemies. -Lao Tzu Badger It was inevitable that our government would bitch and moan before finally accepting the truth: the great red menace has become yet another Third World country begging for handouts. Once the truth was accepted, it was equally inevitable that the bureaucrats would find a new foe. Unfortunately, they have seen the enemy and it is us. The New York Times recently reported that the hackers have landed and truth, justice, and artificially flavored lemon meringue pie are endangered. The story was quickly echoed by every paper in the nation. As reported in Mr. Badger's home town paper, The State, it was not a pretty sight. "Computer hackers pose security risk to U.S. military: "Armed with sophisticated snooping tools, unauthorized computer programmers have gained access to hundreds of sensitive but unclassified government and military networks . . ." What follows is a classic attempt to convince the average reader that: 1. Hackers are a true menace. 2. Hackers haven't really done any damage. Why two such contradictory beliefs fly together should be old news to anybody who lived through the McCarthy era. If the populace can be whipped into an appropriate frenzy of fear and hate, even the most Draconian of measures will be hailed as bulwarks for liberty and freedom. But fascists are always terribly conscious of their own dignity, so this is how they think: "Heaven forbid that the Yellow Peril/Red Menace/Vile Hackers are succeeding because the responsible are incompetent. No indeed, until now we have held them off from any serious damage. But your life and lives of all you cherish hang by a thin, thin thread! Without your mindless support, the flame of western civilization will be extinguished!" This explains why the hackers use "sophisticated snooping tools." If they were only using household appliances like PCs and modems, which is the reality, then the establishment is made to look like bumblers, unworthy of positions in national leadership. This explains why "advanced data encryption techniques . . . prevent the military from discovering the nature of the data being stolen." And I figured the problem was government computer systems without the logging ability of the average shareware bulletin board system. Ohhhh, Momma, lock the door. It also clarifies why " . . . perhaps fewer than 5 percent [of the hackers] have been detected." They're not just hackers! They're evil programmers with incomprehensible tools and reprehensible encryption and now THEY'RE INVISIBLE, too. Help, help! Who will save the little children now? The sweet irony is that Mr. Badger recently received some documentation from a large insurance company in the Southeast. This company administers Medicare claims for a fourteen state region. The following is taken verbatim from page five of the manual for participants who call into their database: "NOTE: Remember your Password. You will need it every time you perform claims status inquiry. Helpful hint: since your password will expire every 30 days, use a system to help you remember your new password. For example, you could use the names of months as passwords, using 'August' for your password in August, 'Sept' for your password in September, etc. Or you may want to use your company name or your own name as your password. The first time you have to change your password, use this name with a '1' at the end of the name; then use the same name with a '2' at the end for your second password change, etc. Just remember that the password can be no less than 4 and no more than 8 characters." Are you a hacker? How long do you think it would take to guess some of these passwords? And real hackers are a national plague?!?!? This is one of four companies, out of all the insurers in the United States, to win the contract for the regionalization of Medicare claims processing. It is supposed to represent the best in the nation! (Did I mention that they still use XMODEM for data transfers from computer to computer?) It's only fitting that the July 22 Wall Street Journal ran a feature on yuppie mothers that breast feed their children. A disturbing number, the Journal reported, were only succeeding in starving their children to death. Mr. Badger views it as a sign: As a nation we've been exposed to so many crass and mean public officials and corporate bureaucrats that our minds have been reduced to overboiled cabbage - even the human ability to suckle children has been impaired. Within twenty-five years we will have grown so enfeebled that we won't be able to reproduce effectively. There is a certain natural grace to this kind of end. GET SMARTER: DEMYSTIFYING THE NATIONAL RECONNAISSANCE OFFICE by Steven Aftergood (saftergood@igc.apc.org) [GET SMARTER originally appeared in the August-September 1994 issue of the Secrecy & Government Bulletin, published by the Federation of American Scientists, 307 Massachusetts Avenue, NE; Washington, D.C. 20002. ISSN 1061-0340. It is republished here by permission of the author.] The disclosure of the secret $310 million headquarters building for the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) provides a textbook example of how unnecessary secrecy blocks responsible oversight and ultimately damages the very activity which it is intended to protect. The spectacle of Congressional outrage over the 1 million square foot NRO complex in Chantilly, Virginia served two important purposes: It helped to demystify the hyperclassified NRO, and it revealed the profound limitations of Congressional oversight. At an August 8 press conference, members of the Senate Intelligence Committee disclosed the existence of the secret project, and lashed out at the intelligence community for failing to properly inform them of the size and cost of the new site. At a Senate hearing two days later, DCI James Woolsey was able to produce enough of a paper trail to show that no deliberate attempt had been made to conceal the project from Congress. But since the new site was buried in the "base" budget and not broken out as a separate line item, the total magnitude of the project was not discovered by the Senate until recently. Members of the House Intelligence Committee, in contrast, indicated that they had been fully informed of the project. The whole episode was a major humiliation for the NRO, which until 1992 was so secret that its existence was not officially acknowledged. In its very first appearance in an open public hearing, the NRO was obliged to grovel. "We have been negligent, clearly negligent, for not showing the budget breakout for this project," said Roger Marsh, director of the NRO headquarters project. The disclosure of the secret facility also served as a lightning rod for the wrath and ridicule of Senators and Congressmen. "This is not the first time such a thing has happened," said Senator Daniel P. Moynihan, "nor will it be, I fear, the last . . . This is an agency which has lied to Congress before. Egregiously." "The intelligence community of this government, the CIA in particular," said Rep. Robert Toricelli, "is a government within a government. We are not controlling it, we are not monitoring it, we are not controlling its spending. We are not functioning in our constitutional responsibilities." "This is the big lie," said Rep. James Traficant, "el supremo fibbo . . . I say we should convert that [new NRO building] to a prison and start by locking up these lying, thieving, stealing CIA nincompoops." In World War I, the chief of German intelligence could still say that "Intelligence is inherently a noble profession." (_Der Nachrichtendienst ist immer ein Herrendienst_.) But today, the public face of intelligence is represented by bureaucratic bunglers, knaves and fools. In popular culture, every half-wit "action" movie now seems to feature a corrupt or sadistic intelligence official. The New York Times (8/14/1994) even illustrated one of its stories on the NRO with a photograph of Maxwell Smart speaking on his shoe-telephone. To the extent that national security does in fact depend on intelligence, the mounting public contempt for U.S. intelligence agencies is serious problem. And to a considerable degree, this contempt is attributable to the excessive and indiscriminate secrecy practiced by the intelligence community. "The larger issue here," said Sen. Bob Kerrey," is the fundamental question of what should be classified in order to protect our country from the real enemies that threaten us, and what information should be declassified so the public can know how their money is spent." But a principal lesson of the NRO building controversy is that even the most benign information will not be declassified by the intelligence community without a scandal. (Senator Kerrey mistakenly commended DCI Woolsey and Deputy Secretary of Defense John Deutsch for declassifying the NRO building. They only did so under pressure and after White House intervention. DCI Woolsey had advocated continued classification for an additional 18 months.) Even the NRO's unimaginative logo was considered classified information prior to the allegations of NRO misconduct. In order to achieve a responsible classification policy, it appears that further scandals will be necessary, even if they have to be manufactured. The NRO building controversy also brought to the fore the inadequacy of Congressional oversight of intelligence. According to Senator Malcolm Wallop, "The Senate Intelligence Committee has been aware of this construction project since its inception. Indeed it was largely responsible for the consolidation of the NRO which made this project necessary. At any time over the last several years, the committee could have examined this project in detail. Only recently did the committee bother to take a look." One reason the project was overlooked (rather than overseen) is that it was presented in the "base" part of the budget, instead of being identified as a "new initiative." And according to Senate Intelligence staffer Mary Sturtevant, "The great majority of continuing, or 'base,' programs go unscrutinized by the Senate committee. (American Intelligence Journal, Summer 1992, page 19.) Another reason is that the Committee lacks the resources to thoroughly and responsibly review the massive intelligence budget, of which the NRO share alone is currently $6.5 billion. According to Senator John Warner, the NRO has 25 persons involved in budget matters. On the other hand, he noted, the Senate committee has only one single staff person assigned to the task. (Cong. Rec., 8/10/94, p. S11142.) Senator Wallop, a Committee member, further complained that "the [intelligence] budget hearings in which I participated this year were designed more to titillate than to inform, to show us the most amazing of the most amazing. They were too short and they simply did not inform us." The Senate's immediate response to the whole issue was to pass an amendment requiring that any intelligence construction project that costs $300 million or more must be identified in a specific budget line item (within the classified budget request). But, of course, this does not even begin to get to the root of the matter, which is excessive and inappropriate secrecy. Senator DeConcini, the intelligence committee chairman, said "People ask me today how many more buildings are out there? I hope there are none, and I do not want to leave any inferences that there are. But frankly . . . it makes me wonder." [The day the NRO story broke on CNN, afternoon anchor Judy Woodruff referred to the agency as "the NRA" and "the Puzzle Palace," the latter a term commonly reserved for the NATIONAL SECURITY AGENCY since the publication of James Bamford's book on the same organization - not the NRO, incidentally - in 1982. Surely, there could be no higher tribute to the effectiveness of the NRO's conspicuous absence in the mainstream media during the last ten years than Woodruff's gaffes. The Crypt Newsletter last covered the NRO in issue number 18. --UK] REVIEWED: TOM CLANCY'S "DEBT OF HONOR" Tom Clancy has always been a guilty pleasure at the Crypt Newsletter. As his books have expanded from taut 250-plus page thrillers like "The Hunt for Red October" when he was published by the Naval Institute Press to the era of MegaClancy, his novels have always been coveted. "Debt of Honor" (Putnam, $25.95) is little different from that winning formula, but I enjoy Clancy for reasons having more to do with his unintentional satirical talent. Clancy has tapped into a vast American readership which fancies the idea of thrusting an entrenching tool (or perhaps a prussic acid tipped carbon fiber needle) into the back of the neck of some foreigner, preferably smaller. "Debt of Honor" reserves this pleasure for the Japanese, whom Clancy obviously detests. The Japs in this novel are generally depraved and treacherous finks who enjoy reading comic books depicting talking dogs that have sex with women, kidnapping their countrymen and killing American whores. In "Debt of Honor," Japanese gangsters subvert the present government, acquire nuclear weapons mounted on retooled Russian ICBMs and launch a sneak attack on the American navy in the Pacific with the war-cry "Climb Mount Niitaka!" [No, I am not making this up.] Through the aid of some no-account U.S. computer programmers, the Japs are also able to plant a logic bomb on Wall Street which erases all the records of international financial transactions at a moment when the monetary markets are in maximum flux. The idea here is rather interesting, in a Toffler-esque kind of way, with the Japanese aim of throwing the U.S. into an economic Dark Age. Of course, they haven't taken into account Jack Ryan and his henchmen at the CIA. The stupid fools! Ryan is a hero of Norse God proportions and he's able to lash together an undercover campaign which features attack helicopters operating over Tokyo, Japanese airborne command centers being shot down near their runways by pilot-blinding laser flashes and naval operations which take back the Pacific theater from the conquering Nips in about two weeks. B-2 bombers even arrive to save the day, flying in from Alaska to take out the Jap nukes. Why, Ryan's wife even becomes the world's most eminent scientist/physician during "Debt of Honor"! It's riveting, action-wise, but the reader soon stumbles into the book's prime stumbling block. The action is separated by 100-200 page deserts of boring, diplomatic talk; stupefying political talk; and even more aimless talk for the sake of talking. However, it is unique in 1994 that "Debt of Honor" is a printed work which doesn't portray the CIA as a petrified bureaucracy of traitors, venal paranoids, incompetents, power drunks and date rapists. The end of "Debt of Honor" is predictable. Clancy gently telegraphs it for about two hundred pages so the reader isn't surprised or dismayed when a Japanese kamikaze pilot steers his jet-liner into the capitol building, killing all of Congress and the President, leaving Jack Ryan in charge of the triumphant nation just in time for the next book. Yeah, I recommend "Debt of Honor." At about three-and-a-half cents a page, you can't go wrong. [Related reading: "Frank Merriwell At The Wheel!", "Sgt. Nick Fury and His Howling Commandos" (Marvel Comics).] REVIEWED: "THE UNIX-HATERS HANDBOOK" IS A TASTY PIE A few weeks ago a quarrelsome editor at IDG Books wrote the Crypt Newsletter protesting my treatment of his ". . . for Dummies" line of merchandise. In essence, I said the " . . . for Dummies" books were a fiendishly clever IQ test, and that if you bought one, you flunked. The howls of outrage and indignation that resulted were terrible to behold. Well, IDG has published "The UNIX-Haters Handbook" (by Simson Garfinkel, Daniel Weise & Steven Strassman, 329 pp.) which is yet another such test, only this time if you get sucked in, you pass. I know exactly ZIP about Unix, but "UNIX-Haters" balls together much of the vitriol and apocrypha on UNIX circulating on the Usenet into a read that entertains and enlightens without being kiss-ass, and that's a lot to expect in 1994. In the first thirty or so pages, UNIX master Dennis Ritchie writes of "UNIX-Haters, ". . . your book is a pudding stuffed with apposite observations, many well-conceived. Like excrement, it contains enough undigested nuggets of nutrition to sustain life for some. But it is not a tasty pie: It reeks too much of contempt and envy." "UNIX-Haters" is also the only book I have ever owned which comes equipped with a paper vomit bag! "UNIX-Haters" is filled with psychologically troubling material: from brutal assessments of the inhabitants of the Usenet - "Most . . . are male science and engineering undergraduates who rarely have the knowledge or maturity to conduct a public conversation" - to a handful of weird commands and shell scripts which, if used on an Internet site, will instigate some manner of angry confusion and hysteria. "UNIX-Haters" is a must for the card-carrying Info Highway skeptic. THEY'LL DO IT EVERY TIME! ["They'll Do It Every Time!" is a Crypt Newsletter column designed to bring readers the work, news and opinions of the dumb and the ignorant inhabiting various segments of America's techno-society, as solemnly as can be managed.] Mr. Badger cagily put Urnst Kouch's name on the mailing list for Gary Olen's "The Sportsman's Guide" merchandise and outdoor gear catalog. Some of the prime bargains found in the latest "fun-to-read catalog" are itemized below: 1. "Pssst! Big Shooter . . . show this to your lady! Sheer and sexy Camo[uflage] Undies and Lingerie are GUARANTEED TO WIND YOUR CLOCK . . . picture your lady wearing these sexy Camo Nighttime Naughties. One size fits all . . . $9.99" 2. "Walk the streets alone in safety. Just press the button and watch . . . With all the publicity stun guns have gotten, any attacker with half a brain will take off at the fearsome sight . . . But if he's a complete nitwit, just touch him for a few seconds . . . and he'll drop like a rock. The current will send his muscles into spasms . . . [and] will also short circuit his thought process (which is already messed up) causing disorientation and mental confusion . . . The 150,000 VOLT LAXATIVE - Megapower for your hand . . . $59.99; or The 150,000 VOLT QUIVERING LUMP BATON (Pop Goes the Weasel!) . . . $79.99" 3. Underwater Fuse . . . Burns at the rate of 26 seconds per foot. Pack of five, 10' lengths . . . $8.99 4. "Startling [decal] Bullet Holes. Put a couple on a friend's windshield and watch their mouth drop open. Stick 'em on car windows, house or cabin windows or just about anything. When people first see them, THEIR MINDS GRIND TO A HALT . . . Pack of 40 . . . $8.99" 5. "Order free: 1-800-888-.30-06" -*- Los Angeles Times business columnist/MIT denizen Michael Schrage is regarded by the Crypt Newsletter as possibly the most remarkable man in the world. On a weekly basis, he tirelessly addresses the problems of the world ranging from how to cure AIDS to solving defense conversion dilemmas, even to the teaching of the lame to see and the blind to walk. An October column on the Pizza Hut PizzaNet on-line system, however, was tops. Michael wrote, " . . . as computationally clever as on-line [pizza] ordering may be, it misses the point of what this medium can do . . . Instead of simply letting people order a pizza, why not let them design it as well? Instead of showing an ordinary menu with a list of toppings, show a picture of a pizza with the topping clustered on the side. Let teenagers and college students build their own pizzas on screen. Present a palette of toppings and let people place their mushrooms and green peppers and pepperoni anywhere on the pizza they want. The real pizza is customized accordingly. In other words, computer-aided pizza engineering . . . This is precisely the sort of interactivity that computers and networks are good at . . . Indeed, a Pizza Hut or Domino's might even be able to sell its 'pizza design' software to customers. Turn making the family pizza into a video game . . . So everybody can win." -*- Has the U.S. government declared war on someone while we weren't looking or are executives at Northrop Grumman in the grip of a new "Strength Through Joy" advertising campaign? In the September 7 Los Angeles Times, Northrop ran a one-third of a page ad for the B-2 Stealth bomber. The copy: " . . . For more than a decade, hundreds of companies, all across [California] have been working on the B-2. Using Northrop Grumman's leadership in stealth technology to build an aircraft that is, by all accounts, the most survivable aircraft ever flown. So survivable, in fact, that one B-2 can often fly missions that free up dozens of ordinary aircraft for less hazardous jobs. Which makes it possible for fewer pilots to be put at risk every time the B-2 flies. At Northrop Grumman, we understand this accomplishment was brought about by the efforts of 25,000 dedicated people. People who are, quite honestly, the most creative we've ever seen. And in this state, that's definitely saying a lot." Unless we're not being told something, it behooves readers to know the B-2 has only flown in anger in Tom Clancy's "Debt of Honor" and other novels by various techno-thrillers writers. However, if one guesses that Northrop is about to give the chop to the "dedicated people . . . the most creative we've ever seen" in a shakeout following the merger with Grumman, the ad makes a lot of sense from a corporate feelgood standpoint. But that would be an overly cynical view. [Note: In Southern California, Hughes, another aerospace giant, fired 4,000 during the second week of September.] And as Crypt 27 went to the electronic presses, Grumman Northrop continued the B-2 glorification program in the Sunday, September 11, L.A. Times with an even larger ad which declared: "After spending years building an aircraft that's virtually undetectable, don't you think it's a bit strange we're telling the world how to see it? Not when you understand why. In the Gulf War, the U.S. needed to attack a strategic target. This complex mission involved 75 airplanes, including fighter bombers, fighter escorts, air defense suppression aircraft and airborne tankers. Not to mention the 132 crew members need to fly these aircraft. How does the B-2 change this scenario? First, the fighter escorts can be deployed elsewhere. Since the B-2 is virtually undetectable, there's no need to protect something the enemy can't find. The suppression aircraft can also fly other missions. Since the B2 can fly over 6,000 miles without refueling, the tankers are free to support other aircraft. And since the B-2 carries 32,000 pounds of precision weapons, the fighter bombers can be used against other targets. So how many B-2's are needed to free up 75 other aircraft? Two. And even more important, only four pilots will be put at risk. So think it over. Now that you know how the B-2 really works, maybe it isn't that hard to see after all." Not mentioned is that for the price of two B-2's, one can also purchase the 75 aircraft referenced. And get change. -->The Crypt Newsletter gives "Thanks and a tip o' the hat" to the original creators of "They'll Do It Every Time," wherever they might be. CHIP'S AHOY: GERMAN COMPUTER MAGAZINE INTERVIEWS INTERNATIONAL VIRUS WRITERS AS MATERIAL FOR SPECIAL ISSUE The Crypt Newsletter has learned that CHIP, a German computer magazine, recently sent a staffer named Ralph into the jungle of the FIDO-net in search of John Buchanan, a Virginia-based hacker and virus writer who has appeared from time to time in these electronic pages. Inspired by the recent publication of an article entitled "Virus, They Wrote," which appeared in the September 1994 PC Magazine, the German editors are trying to recreate the same material - interviews with virus writers - presented in the Ziff-Davis publication. "At the end of the year," wrote Ralph, "[the] German Computer-Magazin, called CHIP, will publish a Spezial-Magazin about computer viruses. The editor [is] searching for anybody from the 'bad guys' who [is] willing to give [interviews]." The special could turn out to be a must read since Germany is the home of a number of famous figures in the history of computer viruses. Frankfurt, for example, is the home of Project Rahab. According to Peter Schweizer's book, "Friendly Spies," (1993, Atlantic Monthly Press) Rahab was the code name for a German intelligence group committed to using hackers and their methods to gather information and secrets on whatever was of high-tech interest to the Bundesnachrictendienst, Germany's CIA analog. Schweizer claimed the Rahab group routinely included America in its operations during the early '90s and hired a famous German hacker, Bernd Fix, to supply a virus for possible military applications. Fix's work was well known within the circle of experts familiar with PC viruses! He had provided another German, Ralf Burger, with a disassembly of the famous Vienna virus and another of his own, Rush Hour, which Burger subsequently reprinted in a book published in 1987 called "Computer Viruses: A High-Tech Disease." More recently renamed as "Computer Viruses and Data Protection," the book is marketed by the German software and computer book publisher, Abacus. Many in the computing community hated Burger because "Computer Viruses: A High-Tech Disease" devoted quite a bit of space to the grubby particulars of data mutilation and supplied the source code to Vienna and a series of primitive viruses called Burger and Virdem. Quite naturally, the Vienna, Burger and Fix viruses immediately found their way into the hands of virus programmers and bulletin board system operators worldwide. Burger not only had written viruses, he was also in the anti-virus business. His software was sold by Abacus in the United States as "Virus Secure," a product that was quietly withdrawn from the market in 1992. The circulation of "Computer Viruses: A High Tech Disease," was largely responsible for the popularization of the Vienna, Burger and Virdem families of viruses, the result being that the programs have been altered again and again into different forms since 1987. None of these viruses pose credible threats in 1994. More recently, various German agents have purchased large libraries of computer viruses from Americans operating virus exchange bulletin board systems. One of the most well travelled was a man called Gerhard Maier. Maier linked himself with the German firm, DatenTechnik, a manufacturer of anti-virus software. While buying viruses, Maier also traded viruses isolated in Europe with the underground community of virus writers in the United States. Maier was the first to introduce the SMEG polymorphic computer virus into the United States earlier this year when he traded it to virus exchange operators on the East Coast. Around mid-July, the alleged author of the SMEG series of computer viruses, a hacker known as Black Baron, was arrested by New Scotland Yard's computer crime unit in connection with claims that he had attempted to spread the SMEG viruses piggybacked on shareware. FINDING/OBTAINING/READING THE CRYPT NEWSLETTER: ----Crypt Newsletter is distributed directly from the Crypt InfoSystems BBS in Pasadena, CA. Ph: 818-683-0854. When calling, you will have to use the NEW USER PASSWORD "Rochedale". Set your terminal to N-8-1, ANSI-BBS or vanilla TTY emulation. ----A complete set of 25 back issues of The Crypt Newsletter along with special editor's notes can be obtained on diskette by sending $45 cash, check or m.o. to: George Smith 1635 Wagner Street Pasadena, CA 91106 Remember to include a good mailing address with any correspondence. ----Want to ensure the Crypt Newsletter remains a good read? SHOW YOUR SUPPORT. The Crypt Newsletter expects you to subscribe if you read it regularly. Send $20 for twelve issues to the address above. You'll also receive an automatic account with full access on the Crypt InfoSystems BBS! Urnst Kouch will laugh at your jokes, even if they're not funny! Quite a deal. Besides Crypt InfoSystems BBS (818.683.0854), there are many other good places to retrieve the Crypt Newsletter, particularly if you are a member of one of the mainstream on-line services. For the Apple Mac crowd in greater Los Angeles County and the San Gabriel Valley, The Crypt Newsletter is also found on Digital Popcorn, a FirstClass system software network on-line with Internet connections at: 818-398-3303. On COMPUSERVE, straight text editions of the newsletter can be retrieved from: The "CyberLit" library in CYBERFORUM (GO CYBERFORUM). The "Papers/Magazines" and "Future Media" libraries in the Journalism Forum (GO JFORUM). On DELPHI, these versions are warehoused in The Writers Group, General Info database and the Internet Services Special Interest Group in the General Discussion database. On GENIE, the Crypt Newsletter can be found in the DigiPub RT special interest group. -------------------------------------------------------------- Editor George Smith edits The Crypt Newsletter from Pasadena, CA. Andy Lopez lives in Columbia, SC. copyright 1994 Crypt Newsletter. All rights reserved.