The Cybergypsies

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The Cybergypsies Page 9

by Indra Sinha


  Mike is Michael Paris (no relation to Geno) who runs the CRiS (Computer Research Institute) board up in Chicago. He’s a virus researcher with links both to hackers and anti-hackers. You can get clean, well-presented and documented virus specimens from his board if you’re willing to sign on as a researcher. If I really want to learn virus programming, I should probably spend more time there, but at £1 per minute it isn’t as entertaining as Geno.

  >Well there is plenty of people out there writing new stuff. Have you seen Offspring yet? Damn good little spawning virus, but I and a very few others are the only ones putting them into anything. It is really getting sad. I mean somewhere along the line these people have lost the reason for viruses... they are not to play with they are to spread...

  >I see that satanbug is still rampaging around...

  >Yeah it fucked up a secret service computer. We need more of that kind of action. I am almost willing to say that all the virus swappers are not helping the situation either all they are doing is letting the anti-virus people get their hands on the new stuff like satanbug faster...

  >Geno, do you think the anti-virus mob have got access into groups like NuKE etc?

  >To some degree, yes. I know for a fact that there are several anti-virus people in NuKE that Rock Stupid has let in. Tiphoid Mary is a member of VirNET for gods sake and there are others. That fucking F__________ is a non-programing idiot who gives everything straight to MacFee...

  Tiphoid, ironically, was later kicked out of VirNET for being a member of NuKE. MacFee (sic) is McAfee the anti-virus man.

  >well, why did Rocky let them in then?

  I don’t tell Geno that thanks to my friendship with him, Rock Steady has admitted me, a secret if clueless double agent, to NuKE.

  >He is a moron. The last NuKE journal pissed the hackerphreakers off, because Nowhere Man’s article was almost straight out of 2600 mag, also the fucker is a virus thief, he has stolen one of mine that I gave him.

  >ah Geno, if only the public knew the tribulations of being a virus writer...

  Next year in Jerusalem

  The New York HQ of a large computer company is hit by the Jerusalem B virus. The virus infects only ten files, but every machine connected to the network has to be checked. It takes a team of administrators, technicians and security folk two working days and cost around $5,000. On this basis, the Oklahoma Institute of Virus Research contains enough destructive code to trash every system in the US. Stashed in a chamber marked ‘J’, I find hundreds of mutant strains of the Jerusalem virus.

  J-1361.ZIP

  1216

  09-12-93

  jerusalem modification 1361

  J-1605.ZIP

  1338

  09-12-93

  jerusalem modification 1605

  J-1735.ZIP

  1478

  09-12-93

  jerusalem modification 1735

  J-1813.ZIP

  1346

  09-12-93

  jerusalem modification 1813

  J-4KA.ZIP

  3961

  09-12-93

  jerusalem mod

  J-A204.ZIP

  1377

  09-12-93

  jerusalem (1808.a.204)

  J-AC2900.COM

  3000

  02-24-92

  jerusalem (anticad.2900)

  J-AC2900.ZIP

  2196

  09-12-93

  jerusalem (anticad.2900)

  J-AC3004.COM

  3104

  01-01-80

  jerusalem (anticad.3004)

  J-AC3012.EXE

  3604

  03-19-89

  jerusalem (anticad.3012)

  J-AC3012.EXE

  3604

  03-19-89

  jerusalem (anticad.3012)

  J-AC4KA.COM

  5911

  06-01-89

  jerusalem (anticad.4096)

  J-AC4KCH.COM

  5096

  08-31-90

  jerusalem (anticad.4096.chinese)

  J-AC4KDA.COM

  14096

  02-06-91

  jerusalem (anticad.4096.danube)

  J-AC4KMO.COM

  4138

  12-20-90

  jerusalem (anticad.4096.mozart)

  J-ACTOBA.COM

  6471

  06-03-91

  jerusalem (anticad.2900.tobacco)

  J-ACTOBA.ZIP

  4192

  09-12-93

  jerusalem (anticad.2900.tobacco)

  J-ANARKB.COM

  5909

  03-18-91

  jerusalem (1808.anarkia.b)

  J-AN ARKC.COM

  6928

  03-11-91

  jerusalem (1808.anarkia.c)

  J-ANTISC.COM

  1607

  02-09-92

  jerusalem (antiscan)

  J-BARCEL.COM

  5363

  04-03-91

  jerusalem (barcelona)

  J-CARFLD.COM

  2516

  08-31-90

  jerusalem (carfield)

  J-CLIPPR.EXE

  2437

  07-29-90

  jerusalem (clipper)

  J-CNDER.ZIP

  3260

  09-12-93

  jerusalem (1808.cnder)

  J-CTRIP6.COM

  1817

  01-01-80

  new or modified variant of jerusalem

  J-CTRIPS.COM

  1817

  02-19-91

  jerusalem (1808.captain trips.skism)

  J-CZECHB.COM

  1737

  03-11-90

  jerusalem (czech.b)

  J-DRAGON.COM

  5384

  06-03-91

  jerusalem (1808.triple)

  J-EINSTN.COM

  1438

  05-12-91

  jerusalem (einstein)

  J-EINSTN.ZIP

  933

  09-12-93

  jerusalem (einstein)

  J-F13416.COM

  432

  08-19-89

  friday the 13th (416)

  J-F13416.ZIP

  491

  09-12-93

  friday the 13th (416)

  J-F13VB.COM

  604

  01-01-80

  friday the 13th (540.b)

  J-F13_V2.COM

  452

  09-19-89

  new or modified variant of friday the 13th

  J-FEB7.COM

  1818

  02-10-92

  jerusalem (1808.february 7th)

  J-FEB7.ZIP

  1356

  09-12-93

  jerusalem (1808.february 7th)

  J-FLAGEE.COM

  1818

  02-10-92

  jerusalem (1808.flag ee)

  J-FREREA.ZIP

  1477

  09-12-93

  jerusalem (1808.frere.a)

  J-FRI15.EXE

  6464

  12-30-90

  jerusalem (1808.friday 15th)

  J-FUMCHU.ZIP

  1810

  09-12-93

  jerusalem (fu manchu)

  J-GP1.COM

  2869

  10-29-90

  jerusalem (gp1)

  J-GRLINX.ZIP

  1431

  09-12-93

  jerusalem (groen links)

  J-INJECT.EXE

  12080

  01-07-91

  j-inject trojan

  J-JAN25.EXE

  6928

  03-11-91

  jerusalem (1808.january 25th)

  J-JVT1.COM

  1855

  10-31-90

  jerusalem (1808.jvt1)

  J-KYLIE.ZIP

  1812

  09-12-93

  jerusalem (kylie)

  J-MENDOZ.ZIP

  1565

  09-12-93

  jerusalem (1808.mendoza)

  J-MIKY.ZIP

  3470

  09-12-93

  jerusalem (miky) />
  J-MOCTEZ.ZIP

  4320

  09-12-93

  jerusalem (moctezuma)

  J-MULE.ZIP

  1788

  09-12-93

  jerusalem (mule)

  J-MUMY10.EXE

  10513

  12-20-90

  jerusalem (mummy 1.0)

  J-MUMY12.EXE

  10743

  01-03-89

  jerusalem (mummy 1.2)

  J-NAZI.ZIP

  3955

  09-12-93

  multiple infections: jerusalem (1808.standard) and cascade

  J-NOV30.ZIP

  1628

  09-12-93

  jerusalem (november 30th)

  J-PHENOM.COM

  2048

  03-15-91

  jerusalem (1808.phenomen)

  J-PLO.ZIP

  1459

  09-12-93

  jerusalem (1808.p)

  J-PSQR.ZIP

  1317

  09-12-93

  jerusalem (psqr)

  J-PUERTO.EXE

  6928

  03-11-91

  jerusalem (1808.puerto)

  J-SK2.COM

  1817

  01-01-80

  jerusalem (1808.captain trips.c)

  J-SK3.COM

  1817

  01-01-80

  jerusalem (1808.captain trips.d)

  J-SK4.COM

  1817

  01-01-80

  jerusalem (1808.captain trips.e)

  J-SK5.COM

  1817

  01-01-80

  jerusalem (1808.captain trips.f)

  J-SK6.COM

  1817

  01-01-80

  jerusalem (1808.captain trips.g)

  J-SK7.COM

  1817

  01-01-80

  jerusalem (1808.captain trips.h)

  J-SK8.COM

  1817

  01-01-80

  new or modified variant of jerusalem

  J-SK9.ZIP

  1378

  09-12-93

  new or modified variant of jerusalem

  J-SKISM.COM

  1817

  01-01-80

  jerusalem (1808.skism)

  J-SPAIN.ZIP

  1447

  09-12-93

  jerusalem (1808.spanish)

  J-SS110.ZIP

  1128

  09-12-93

  jerusalem (solano.subliminal.1_10)

  J-STTD.ZIP

  6995

  09-12-93

  jerusalem (1808.standard)

  J-SUB_0.ZIP

  1384

  09-12-93

  jerusalem (1808.captain trips.subzero)

  J-SUMS1.ZIP

  1373

  09-12-93

  jerusalem (1808.apocalypse)

  J-SUMS2.ZIP

  1638

  09-12-93

  jerusalem (1808.frere.c)

  J-SUMS3.ZIP

  1348

  09-12-93

  jerusalem (1808.0ffd)

  J-SUMS4.ZIP

  1513

  09-12-93

  jerusalem (1808.frere.c)

  J-SUNDY2.ZIP

  1577

  09-12-93

  jerusalem (sunday ii)

  J-SUNDYC.ZIP

  1479

  09-12-93

  jerusalem (sunday.c)

  J-SUNDYD.EXE

  2644

  08-31-90

  jerusalem (sunday.d)

  J-SUNDYE.COM

  1668

  12-25-89

  jerusalem (sunday.e)

  J-SURIV3.EXE

  6928

  03-11-91

  jerusalem (suriv 3)

  J-SWISS.EXE

  2496

  12-16-90

  jerusalem (1808.swiss)

  J-TRIPLE.ZIP

  3273

  09-12-93

  jerusalem (1808.triple)

  J-WESTWD.ZIP

  1364

  09-12-93

  jerusalem (westwood)

  J-YELLOW.COM

  2387

  07-11-91

  jerusalem (yellow)

  Geno explains to me that it is the pitiful incompetence of the virus writing crowd that accounts for the hundreds of Jerusalem offspring. The original Jerusalem virus had been written in Haifa in the eighties. It went off with a bang every Friday 13th. For years it was the commonest computer virus ‘in the wild’, which made it the perfect laboratory specimen for would-be virus writers to examine and disassemble. Most of the Jerusalem clones were created by a virus-writing gang called Phalcon/Skism, much feared by the antivirus establishment, who portray them as a sinister clique of cyber-terrorists. Actually, says Geno, they are ‘second-rate programmers barely old enough to masturbate’. All they did was take the Jerusalem virus apart and put it back together again in dozens of minutely varying iterations, most of which were duly given new, terrifying sounding names and launched as new creations. Geno tells me that he has tested all of them, most do not work.

  Gypsy Caravanserai (Chorley’s story)

  ‘Bear, it’s Chorley an . . . an I’m telling yer straight up don’t get offended cos I’m fucking drunk. In fact I’m fucking drunk. I’ve got this giant bloody bottle of whisky here and I’m halfway through it or I wouldn’t be ringing yer. Yer know what I’m gonna say, don’t yer? It’s all a bloody big mistake, mate. You and Cally. Okay I’ve seen the letter she sent yer but it don’t mean a bloody thing. You should see the one she sent us. What I’m trying to say, an if I wasn’t so fucking pissed I wouldn’t, but the bottle’s half fucking empty an I’m sorry, this’ll shock yer, but . . . thing is she’s with me, mate. Cally and me have been having an affair for months. I just wanted yer to know in case yer got the wrong idea, an I want you to see the letter she wrote me cos when you’ve read it you’ll fucking leave her alone cos it proves I’m the one she loves.’

  It’s just a week since my heart-stopping experience with Calypso. She has sent me no letter that I know of, but in my mailbox is the following message.

  From: calypso

  To: chorley

  babe, ours were the sweetest moments. every day, i secretly smile and remember that day on the moor. the relief at last of leaving the others behind, looking in the mirror at the caravans getting smaller and smaller behind us. then looking at you and thinking we had the whole day to be together and be free. you weren’t even expecting it were you babe. i know i’d said we’d find ways to be together, but weren’t you surprised when i jumped up and said ‘i’ll go with chorley because there are some things i need to get in richmond’. the look on your face i will never forget, i think only i noticed. cos you had been expecting to go off on your own. i had to do it that way, because you know babe, you’re not very good at hiding your feelings. so off we went and left them behind and you were all shy, as if we’d never been alone together before. when we stopped at the inn for a drink i didn’t say anything but i knew we’d spend most of the day in bed. i cherish the memory of that room in the inn, the four poster with so soft a mattress, snowy sheets. you touch me and we’re together and we are one. forever, you and me, whatever happens, this day is ours. it was summer, we were hot and lay sticky and sweet on the cover...

  ‘I know she’s not perfect,’ slurs Chorley, ‘an’ I know she’s had special friends and been tempted and all that . . . but she’s never gone all the way with anyone else. Not since she was married . . . ’cept her husband of course . . . She’s hurting, Bear, she’s like a confused child, you probably don’t know this but she never had much love when she was young. She needs me, mate. Other blokes might want to take advantage for what they can get, but I’m concerned for her, I care about her and I can help her. Cos you see the thing is she really loves me.’

  So Lilith was right. Poor old Chorley, she got you too.

  Missing

  I get home one evening about eight or nine, the usual time – there are fifty slow miles between the agency and our Sussex village – to find no-one i
n. The house is shadowy and deserted. It’s early summer, still light outside. I go out into the garden. No-one around – only an edge of moon netted in branches – not a soul.

  Go into the study. Taped to the computer screen is a plain white envelope. Slit it open, looking for a message. Four folded sheets: a telephone bill. My eyes flick to the end of the last sheet and recoil. I can’t believe the sum – it’s more than a thousand pounds. Besides the bill there is nothing else in the envelope. All kinds of wild notions audition in my brain. Eve has opened the bill and walked out in disgust. No wonder. My eyes slide down lists of figures, hundreds and hundreds of calls. I recognise the Shades number in London. But the other names read like a list of destinations you see in the window of a travel agency. Some of the places I have called in the past three months: Bombay, Chicago, Hamburg, Los Angeles and San Francisco (dozens of times), Oklahoma City (regularly), Poona, Tokyo, London (hundreds), Sydney, Amsterdam, Miami, Moscow, New York (lots), Paris, Basle, Geneva (regularly), Oslo, Stockholm, Singapore, Johannesburg, Beirut, Athens, Copenhagen, Bangkok, Ljubljana, Vladivostok (twice). It’s not a mistake.

  Eve has seen all this. I’ve been trying to convince her that the modem thing’s a passing fad, while all the time the urge to wander has been growing, the cost getting higher. This is the first time a bill has crossed into four figures. I promised Eve that costs were on the wane, that things were coming back under control. Now she’s seen the evidence that I was lying. What has she done? Has she taken the children and gone?

  I sit down at the machine. The house is empty, my family has disappeared and I sit at the machine. Can’t think of anything else to do. This is what I always do. I don’t feel right unless I am sitting here. Fingers move by sheer force of habit. I watch it happening. The number is dialled, then there is – what was it I said about Jarly? – the whistle of the modem, like a needle sliding into the brain, the moment of connection and the sweet warmth of Shades again.

 

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