SAFE HEX INTERNATIONAL, A NEW GERMAN VIRUS CENTRE NOW GERMANY HAS GOT ITS FIRST VIRUS CENTRE, WHERE EVERYONE CAN GET HELP. Computer viruses have become a real problem for a lot of Amiga owners in the past couple of years. Two or three years ago the number of different viruses could be counted on the fingers of one hand. Since then the number of new viruses has grown catastrophically quickly, so that today we have more than 250 different Amiga viruses and, what's worse, that number is quadrupling every year. Are we going to have more than 1000 viruses in 1993? Well, time will tell, but all the prognoses from both Amiga, PC's and Mackintosh computers seem to make it all too likely. Gradually, almost all Amiga owners have encountered up to several different viruses. Even the publishers of our Amiga magazine have reiterated that they can't keep up with developments. Take, for example, some of the American Amiga magazines which still recommend VirusX as one of the best virus killers around today - in 1992! Or the British Amiga magazine which sent out a virus to its readers on the cover disk. So don't say that virus problems are only something you can get if you "meddle" with pirate copies and the like. Earlier, a good rule was, if one steered clear of pirated program copies, then one could avoid viruses. Today the situation is unfortunately totally different. One can pretty much risk catching viruses from everything and everywhere, from cover disks from computer magazines, from original software bought in Britain or abroad and, last but not least, from BBS's if you have a modem and upload programmes. Last year no less than 4 British cover disks had viruses. The most recent was sent out with the December 1991 issue of "Amiga User International" and was infected with "Saddam Hussein", a virus which is particularly dangerous and hard to get rid of. As for original software, luckily it is rare for there to be a virus in the sealed boxes. What most often happens is that the personnel in the computer shops unconsciously infect the disks when the customer wants the program demonstrated. Maybe the assistant has sneaked a quick look at a couple of pirate games in between customers. One single example is from a business which has since gone bankrupt. 75% of the programs sold by the business in Denmark were infected by a virus. Maybe that was a contributory factor to the company going under? THE DISASTER TO COME? -------------------- 1000 Amiga viruses x 900 800 700 600 x 500 400 300 x 200 100 (SCA) x --x------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1987 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 You can see on the graph how Amiga viruses have developed since we got the first SCA virus in 1987. If growth continues at the same rate we will have more than 10,000 Amiga viruses in 1996. Our organisation is trying to halt this development because we think that it is unacceptable for other people to be allowed to destroy our enjoyment in having a computer but it means, of course, that we need help from you in various ways and your support of our work, otherwise it won't succeed. It is interesting to make a comparison with PC viruses today, where we now have around 1000 viruses. A corresponding prognosis which the graph above shows is that we will get no less than 25,000 viruses in 1996. Therefore we have been thinking about starting up a special PC virus centre here in 1992. SAFE HEX Naturally, you can feel very insecure when you get a virus in your computer. What do you do? Should you sell your Amiga and give everything up, as I have heard several people have done, or what? Lots of beginners jump in the deep end, get lots of disks from "friends" and never manage to get involved in the more basic things: "Things are all right, aren't they?" But, after a month or two, the reckoning has to be paid: gradually none of the disks work. Is the computer defective or what? It all started so well... One important rule had been ignored: "Write protect all your disks" and keep them write protected, always. If you have to remove the write protection, then first turn off your Amiga for 60 seconds so that things can't be completely ruined due to a virus. You may well get a virus on your disks but you will prevent the virus spreading onto your other disks. What is "Safe Hex"? In this day and age one can't be too careful about what one gets involved with. If you mess about with your sex life it can mean death. One can almost say the same when it concerns your computer. Never swap programs with someone you don't know, not even in the school yard. You may get some good games here but also definitely some viruses too if you don't take care. That means: Learn to say no thanks, or it can be expensive. Remember that all sensible people use "Safe Hex" so don't get involved with just anybody. You may regret it bitterly later. SAFE HEX INTERNATIONAL We are a group of around 250 people from all round the world who have taken up the fight to improve data safety. We have named our organisation "Safe Hex International". We are battling on several fronts, we make programs that fight viruses (what are known as virus-killers). We also offer a reward of $1000 for reporting virus programmers. Definitely not from bloodthirstiness, but to prevent programmers damaging our hobby, computers. If they can't stop it, then we think that the powers above must do their job and either fine or imprison the culprits. We work a lot in the area of collecting new viruses. We analyse the new viruses people send to us and use them to update our "killers". If you know anyone who has a PC or MAC virus we would be very grateful if you could send the virus to us. We hope that we can build up both PC and MAC departments around the world in 1992. One very important point is our lobbying, that is to say, influencing the media, politicians and the lawmakers in various countries. Many countries have no laws at all on data security. Maybe we will reach our target in 1992 since one of our Danish MEP's (Member of the European Parliament) Freddy Blak (Socialist) is involved in proposing a law on harmonising and strengthening the law on data security in the EEC. As we know, neither hackers nor viruses recognise geographical boundaries. Something effective has to be done, it doesn't help that some countries have no data law at all because this affects the rest of us. FREE VIRUS HELP IN GERMANY Recently Safe Hex International set up centres in a number of countries. Virus centres have already been set up in more than twelve countries including Holland, Austria, Italy, Britain, Spain, Greece, USA, Germany, Belgium, Sweden, Australia, Czechoslovakia and Denmark; and several more are being set up. These virus centres provide a service for computer owners who can get free help there. Not only that; they can get the newest virus killers for a very modest sum, together with several hundred pages of instructions, now also in german, from our new virus centre in Germany. Who runs the new virus centre and what can it do for us? We visited the virus centre and asked Markus Schmall, who began the centre a couple of months ago, lots of questions. Of course I know most of the answers because I helped Markus to start the virus centre but you will of course be interested in hearing more about it. ELS: How are you? I am 18 years old und have just finished my highscool. I start to work this summer at a hospital in Hanover as orderd civil public service. My equipment is a Amiga 500 (Kickstart 1.2.), Monitor 1084, printer, 52 MB Evolution harddisk, Action Replay II, and a 2. Floppy (5 1/4). I have been study Amiga viruses in about a year, and have programmed my own virus killer, which I have spread to my friends and like. The first virus I got was a Lamer Exterminator boot virus, and from that I have collected all viruses I got myself or from friends ELS: How did the new virus centre begin? MS: It started a couple of months ago when I got "The New Superkillers", the disk from Safe Hex International with the virus killers on it. There was an offer to set up a virus centre on the disk.I thought it was a good idea because a lot of people are bothered by viruses. At the same time, a lot of virus killers which are available from Public Domain are often too old for anyone to recommend that people use them. Our disk always has the very newest virus killers with full documentation as well as a selection of articles on fighting viruses. At this point in time I had several viruses on my own disks and didn't know much about computer viruses. So I taught myself a good deal about viruses by reading the several pages of text and using the virus killers to remove the virus from my disks. ELS: Why translate all these instructions into german, people can just use the virus killers, can't they? MS: Yes, some can but others, and there are unfortunately many of these, can't work out what they should do. These will benefit a lot from our virus killer disk, not least the beginners. Other people believe, unfortunately, that they can manage: with the result that they have a number of viruses on their disks or, even worse, maybe also a virus on their hard disks. ELS: Have you any idea how widespread viruses are in Britain, on the Amiga? MS: That can be hard to say, but a conservative estimate is that around 500,000 disks, and around one out of every 15 hard disks, are infected by a virus today. Maybe that sounds a lot, but quite often people ring us up and tell us that they have realised that maybe over a hundred of their disks are infected by a virus. The worst occurrence was one single disk that was infected by five viruses. It is unfortunately not a rare occurrence either for people to phone and say that they have found two or three different viruses on their hard disk. Thank goodness, most people only have a few viruses, but there is a good reason for this: they have learnt their lesson, are careful and responsible with their disks and check them frequently with the new virus killers. ELS: How can people not realise that they have a virus? It sounds strange that someone can have 100 infected disks without knowing it. MS: Yes, well, only about one out of five viruses is immediately destructive, so it can take some time before one realises that there is a virus. But a number of viruses can spread unseen for a time before they suddenly strike like lightning and spread death and disaster amongst your disks. But what can happen is that one slowly realises that one has a virus when more and more of the disks show read write errors, gurus or similar faults. Maybe the first time this happens you think that the computer has gone wrong, but that is very rare. ELS: How can you help people with viruses, and how can they get your virus killer disk? MS: They can write to me, and get our german virus killer disk for 7 DM, but remember to put the money between two pieces of card or it will mess up the post office's franking machines, otherwise send a cheque. The 2 pound includes disk, post and packing, so I don't think it is very expensive. This disk is probably a good start for anyone who doesn't know much about computer viruses. But it is very important to keep up to date and get a new version every 3 to 6 months. It all depends on how many new programs you get. Remember that there are probably new viruses on new programs, so the danger of being attacked by a virus here is relatively great. People are welcome to phone for advice if there is something they cannot sort out themselves and, frankly speaking, computer viruses can often be hard to get rid of. ELS: You say that your virus killer is copyrighted and must not be used commercially. Do you think that people will respect that? MS: Well, you can't take everything in life literally. We definitely aren't against people copying the disk for their friends and so on, on the contrary, we would be pleased. But getting everything translated from Danish has been a big job and so has keeping the disk up to date all the time. Therefore we hope that people will grant us the few pence we earn on each disk. We do have running expenses such as the phone and much else which has to be paid for. The programmers have not copyrighted the virus killer itself, but the translation for some of the programs into german is copyrighted by "SHI" So we hope that all serious people will respect that. Otherwise they risk destroying a good idea, and we may stop sending it out, you never know. ELS: You work together with the various programmers who make virus killers on your disk? MS: Yes, we collect new viruses for the programmers and also help them to encourage people to send a small sum as thank you for their program. Particularly where virus killers are concerned, we would encourage everyone to pay their part of the shareware costs because the best virus killers today, by and large, are shareware programs. It can, unfortunately easily stop if the programmers' work isn't rewarded. If, for example you have some cash left over after a trip abroad, then send it on to the programmer. Only notes, though, coins can't be exchanged in the bank. A Danish 50kr note would be about right (around 5 pound). A large sum isn't necessary, as long as enough people send a little. Remember that virus killer programmers never finish their programs because they have to be updated the whole time new viruses turn up. Many of the programmers spend 10-20 hours of their time off every week, all year round, and I think that a bit of economic support is reasonable. There are 15-20 virus killer programmers in "Safe Hex International". There are also programmers in the group who make commercial (bought) programs and people who make shareware or freeware programs. ELS: Many people are probably interested in what is the best virus killer today, do you have any suggestions? MS: Yes. (long pause) That is actually a very difficult question to answer. BootX version 4.30 is probably the best all round virus killer but VT version 2.36, which is a German virus killer, is probably the best if one has a hard disk, because it is the most quickly updated virus killer and, at the same time, is particularly good at checking for file viruses. For beginners Virus Checker 5.37 is specially good to use because it is very simple but, at the same time, very effective, specially as background running. Actually, one may well need to use 4-5 different ones because each has their own advantages. ELS: What is all this about a reward of $1000 which is being offered, and who is going to pay out all this lovely money? MS: The money has been donated by our members, that is to say, they have promised to pay out the money when we get information which leads to police prosecution of someone who has made a virus. We are not after people who "only" spread viruses to others, even though there is a need for that too. We don't make any distinction as to whether it is a PC or an Amiga virus, our virus reward applies to all types of computer virus. We have almost $3000 in our reward kitty now. All we are waiting for is the information. ELS: One hears a lot about really nasty viruses, are there some viruses which are specially dangerous or widespread at the moment? MS: The "Saddam Hussein" virus is probably one of the worst which is, at the same time, incredibly widespread. It gets into the L/dir instead of the disk validator and has the same file size, 1848 bytes. All executed files on an infected disk get read/write errors and can only be repaired 100% by using a virus killer known as "Schwarzkopf", which is also on our new virus killer disk. ELS: Well, finally, there are probably some readers who want to have the name and address of where to order the new german virus disk, what do they do? MS: Well, if they want our virus killer disk, they should write to us, and please not ring. The phone is only for people, who have virus problems. BUT we can ONLY...... help you by phone, if you have a virus killer NOT... older than about 3 months. REMENBER........ THAT OLD VIRUS KILLERS CAN NOT FIND NEW VIRUSES! IN GERMAN: (Wenn Sie an neusten Viruskiller und jeglichen Informationen ueber Viren in german interessiert sind, schreiben Sie bitte an): REGIONAL VIRUS CENTER DEUTSCHLAND: ---------------------------------- Markus Schmall Von Graevemeyerweg 25 D-3000 Hannover 72 Germany Virus Helpline: Tel. + 0511 514944 zwischen 18.00-21.00 Wichtig! Diese Telefonnummer ist nur als dringende Telefonnummer fuer Sie gedacht.Viruskiller sollen nur schriftlich geordert werden. Ich gebe telefonisch gerne Ratschlaege und Hilfen bei jeglichen Problemen mit Viren. Generell bin auch an anderen Programmierproblemen interessiert. Written by: Erik Lovendal Sorensen Safe Hex International