From: XXCLARK@indst.indstate.edu
Date: Mon, 19 Jul 93 01:18:54 PDT
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: AIS BBS
Message-ID: <9307190818.AA25746@toad.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain



Paul Ferguson wrote:

>I'd like to get some of your collective thoughts an a matter
>which has stirred quite a debate in the free-information/computer-
>virus-exchange arena.

	Okay...

	The stated charge against Kim Clancy is that she posted [or
  allowed to be posted], among other contraband, virus disassemblies
  [poor, by your reckoning].

	But, as the complaint emerged on VIRUS-L, I suspect the actual
  offense, far worse in the eyes of builders of empires and reputations
  was that she openly and knowingly consorted with known "hackers" and
  other underground types.

  	I suggest that what so belatedly brought the wrath of the
  self-righteous down on Kim Clancy is that she broke the rules of
  the inner circle of the VIRUS-L self-appointed elect.

	While Kim Clancy is not the only security type to knowingly
  and openly communicate with the unwashed, she is one of the few to
  demonstrate an excess of intelligence over ego. She would seem to
  know that no one person or group is the font of perfect knowledge.
  If the US military didn't learn from the VC, was it the VC's fault?

	There is, of course, little so conducive to the enhancement of
  undeserved reputation as that based upon knowledge alleged to be so
  dangerous and so sacrosanct that no one outside the inner circle
  can be trusted with possession.

	Sounds like a disease all too common inside and about the
  beltway, among TLA's and bureaucracies, both corporate and
  governmental.

	VIRUS-L Digest I find amusing, a suitable substitute for MAD
  Magazine. I've never seen it undigested, but if the signal-to-noise
  ratio is as poor as in the Digest, it must be gargantuan. Budding
  shrinks and social studies types looking for new ground to work just
  might find material for several dissertations there.

	VIRUS-L Digest seems the perfect place to look if one is bent
  on studying the cult of the self-appointed, self-important keepers
  of the myth of the mainframe priesthood.

	There is information there, but, as Eliot wrote in one of the
  Sweeney poems, "the trouble is, I gotta use words when I talk to you."
  Therefore, in VIRUS-L Digest, most of the information is between the
  lines. And some residing within the select inner circle don't have
  quite the depth of knowledge they think.

	For the record, Paul, I do not have knowledge of any virus
  exchange boards. I am sure they exist, I just don't know of any.
  And for yourself and Peterson, I've never inquired of anyone
  for any such information. I believe I can meet Peterson's criteria
  for admission to his tutelage, but have neither need nor desire...
  which may have been the point to his recent... challenge.

	I am curious how your foreign colleague discovered this
  threat to western civilization. As I understand it, the AIS BBS is
  a dial-up board. Was he running a demon dialer across the net?
  Was he working for MI-5?

	Your "exposure" of an open secret seems to me not unlike what
  happens on the playground during recess. Much ado about nothing.

	While the danger of viruses is real, I do believe those who
  would be our protectors have learned something from that branch of
  the Department of Corporate/High-Tech Welfare [aka Department of
  Defense], which, not content with probably unconstitutional military
  involvement in law enforcement, is now attempting to drum up new
  contracts to protect us from the comet/asteroid menace. Crikey.

	I dunno about secret cabals of "underground hackers" out to
  get you... I think the danger there is about as great as that to
  Bozo Reagan from "secret Lybian hit squads."

	Save me from legends in their own minds.

	No more fucking secrets...

	You asked...

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