Raid Slam - MBAM Programmer - Virus Writer Turns Tail

[starwars]

(This should make any sensible person distrust MBAM)

http://www.zdnet.co.uk/news/security-management/

Security Management
ZDNet UK / News and Analysis / Security / Security Management
Virus-writer turns tail, covers tracks
By Will Knight, ZDNet.co.uk, 26 August, 1999 03:00
Topics

hacker, sophos, raid, slam, Viruses
NEWS
"Raid", a virus-writer who distributed the Toadie.exe virus and then
taunted the authorities on a number of public newsgroups, could now be
trying to cover his tracks, according to one anti-virus expert.

Sources at Sophos anti-virus believe that the authorities may already be
hot on the trail of this individual after his or her virus crippled the
Austrian headquarters of one of their major international clients over
the weekend. Raid posted Toadie.exe to various warez sites disguised as
a password cracking program.

The hacker, who is believed to be a member of virus writing group Slam,
posted messages to the newsgroup alt.comp.virus over the weekend,
boasting about the destruction his virus had caused. When asked by one
contributor why he should want to do this he explained that it's one way
of going down in history: "A person remembers many things, a person
should remember which virus zonked his/her essay paper, their saved
games etc. It's my goal to make them."

Raid was also asked if he is concerned about the authorities. He or she
wrote, " Nobody knows who Raid [SLAM] even is. Sure, you have a few
guesses; but they are that. Merely guesses. I'm laughing my ass off."

Raid has subsequently attempted to erase a number of these messages and
has is prevented them from being archived at newsgroup site Deja.com.

Graham Cluley, senior technical consultant with Sophos anti-virus
believes Raid could now be in big trouble. He said, "Raid is playing a
very, very dangerous game. The US authorities have shown that they are
prepared to pursue this sort of thing by any means."

The alleged author of the Melissa virus, David L Smith, is currently
being prosecuted and faces a maximum penalty of 40 years' imprisonment
and a fine of $480,000, if found guilty.

Cluley thinks that this case could also have put the wind up Raid. He
added, "Raid has been fairly quiet of late. Maybe he's just getting on
with his real life, or he's found girls or something, but he could well
have taken a look at this case and got the heebie-jeebies."

 

[David H. Lipman]

From: "starwars" <[email protected]>

| By Will Knight, ZDNet.co.uk, 26 August, 1999 03:00

And Y2K has long since passed as well

BTW: Dustin was NOT a MBAM programmer. He was a Malware Researcher. He was not part of
the code team. He analyzed malware and created signtures to detect them

 

[Dustin Cook]

From: "starwars" <[email protected]>

| By Will Knight, ZDNet.co.uk, 26 August, 1999 03:00

And Y2K has long since passed as well

BTW: Dustin was NOT a MBAM programmer. He was a Malware Researcher.
He was not part of the code team. He analyzed malware and created
signtures to detect them

Thanks David for clarifying.

 

[Dustin Cook]

(This should make any sensible person distrust MBAM)

The article you quote has quite a few errors present. I blame Graham
Cluley for the exxageration and overhype of it. fact 1, I didn't try to
cover any tracks and did not delete any articles from usenet. Any moron
knows (stupid journalists who take some salesmans word for it the
exception) thats just about impossible to actually pull off.

fact 2, I didn't taunt anyone and *I* wasn't directly responsible for
toadie infecting anybody. The .zip file I provided to a site very similar
to the one you found the rolling stones transcribed (thanks to me, your
God, Raidy.) contained a txt file, a binary and a diz file (bbs
description). that binary could *not* infect anyone. the user had to take
deliberate steps to get Toadie to infect some other executable and spread
that instead; *I* did not do those things.

Fact 3, Graham Cluley lied to the reporters when he claimed the
authorities might be hot on my trail; they were not interested in Toadie,
as they knew it wasn't against the law to write the program and *I* did
not maliciously distribute it, despite what your news article claimed.

You really can't believe everything you read, moron.

Fact 4, I was not a programmer for Malwarebytes. I was a malware
researcher; involved in the analysis of potentially bad software, I wrote
detections and signatures only. Whatever small utilities I may have
written were to assist with analysis and internal work only; not the main
program which is distributed to end users.

Fact 5, BugHunter is nearly 5 years old now; despite previous claims made
by yourself and others, not one single line of malicious code has ever
been found in the program. Not one single person has *ever* posted to
usenet or elsewhere (that I know of) that BugHunter has killed their
computer or otherwise caused harm to legitimate software.

Fact 6, You really don't have a clue what your talking about. You don't
know me, what I do or much else that isn't readily available via a google
search.

Fact 7, you worship me. I take alot of your time. You wish you were like
me, You wish you could do the things I can.

Fact 8, the company Graham Cluley was so worried about not telling the
name of, was Toyota Corporation. You wish you had something on their
boxes, don't you my pet?