🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <3018@krafla.rhi.hi.is> frisk@rhi.hi.is (Fridrik Skulason) writes:
>In article <1991Apr01.024515.204@ecst.csuchico.edu> amjad@ecst.csuchico.edu (Amjad Saqfalhait) writes:
>>Hi, I am working on a virus detector as an undergraduate project.
>>In order to have it catch more viruses, I am asking for people to send
>>me their ibm viruses. The more you send me, the more i will appreciate it!
>
>The problem with this is simple:
>
>We do not have any guarantee you will not redistribute the viruses you get.
>
>As I have a very large collection of PC-viruses (more than 400 variants),
>I get requests like this quite often.  My usual reply is something along the
>following lines...
>
>	"Please send me a written request on university letterhead,
>	 signed by your supervisor and the head of the department,
>	 stating exactly which viruses you need and how you will
>	 prevent them from spreading."
>
>So far I have not had a single satisfactory reply.
>
>-frisk
>
>Fridrik Skulason      University of Iceland  |       
>Technical Editor of the Virus Bulletin (UK)  |  Reserved for future expansion
>E-Mail: frisk@rhi.hi.is    Fax: 354-1-28801  |   
>
>	 
Fridrik, I am glad that you posted this in this manner.  I could obtain
the type of letter you specify, signed by the University president and
the trustees.  The fact in the matter is that the students import more
than enough virii already.  I am presently doing a study of the virus
question as it might affect our distributed Unix system, and the last
thing I want on is a live virus.  We do not have facilities for
quarantining them in a proper research setting.  So you won't receive
such a letter from me.  

This is an open letter to Amjad and to any other computer science
student who may think that obtaining, creating, or otherwise fiddling
with software that damages computer is "learning," or can be represented
as such.  You came to college to study about computers (and, hopefully,
a number of other things besides the sciences such as mathematics and
physics that surround computer design).  If you complete your course,
you will have a BS degree, and may choose to go on to get an MS, maybe
even a Ph.D.  If you decide to work in the computer industry, you will,
as part of the interviewing process, talk with a "hiring manager."  I
have plenty of experience as a "hiring manager, perhaps more years than
you have been alive.  

No matter what degree you have, what grade point average you can
present, and what recommendations you have from your advisors, if you so
much as mention the idea of virii, trojan horses, worms, etc., you will
set me sit right up.  I will ask you to tell me precisely what your
involvement with this was.  You had better be prepared to prove to me
beyond the shadow of a doubt that your motives were "research" and not
"mischief."  I will want to see a copy of the paper you wrote.  I will
want to know where it was published.  Rest assured that I will follow
through and make sure that the "research" was research, and not
mischiefRest assured also that unless I become convinced that all this
was clean and above board, you will not work in my shop.  Rest assured
that my management will support me.  You will get a polite letter from
our personnel people (now called "human relations") saying that we were
pleased to interview you and a whole bunch of---to be blunt---weasel
words, but that we can't use your skills at present.  

Now, if you choose to study computer security, and there is more to that
topic than just virii, go to your department advisor and make that
known.  That is why you have an advisor. You say you are an
undergraduate.  There is plenty of material to study in the virus-l
archives.  There is even a call for papers there, with a $1000 prize for
the best paper. The competition is open to undergraduates.  The reason I
know this is that I am doing a study in security and I am reading the
material in the virus-l archive to find out what has happened up until
now.  The difference between you studying this material and me studying
it is that I won't get a "grade,"---the "final exam" is to make proper
recommendations to our administration that provide reasonable protection
at reasonable cost.  Learn how to do this, and people will pay you a lot
more than minimum wage.  That is (or ought to be) why you are in
college.

If you want a creative and imaginative project, then spend $169 and buy
a copy of Minix 1.5.  Install it  on a micro-computer, study the code,
and improve it.  You might add provision for Berkeley sockets.  While
you are studying the code you might consider that if you can improve on
Dr. Tanenbaum's work, you are walking with giants.  Some of your young
friends might call you a "dweeb" or a "weenie" (terms I learned from
reading net news).  If you do something like this, post it to the minix
archives, and later say "I am looking for a graduate study," you will
discover that you will have about 100 choices for doing this and won't
have time to complain about being "turned down."  

Now, Amjahd, if the people at "csuchico" have read these posts, I
imagine that you have heard about it from them.  I am relatively new to
the academic world, after 32 years of being a practicing engineer.  My
"supervisor" has been specific with me that what would be cause for
termination in industry is to be dealt with as a teaching/learning
situation here at Iowa State.  I just hope that this has been a
"learning experience" for you.  Work in the industry long enough and you
will get plenty of opportunity to screw things up and make a mess out of
them while trying to make them work.  

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