This message is in MIME format. The first part should be readable text, while the remaining parts are likely unreadable without MIME-aware tools. Send mail to mimeat_private for more info. --------------73155BC68FE Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; CHARSET=us-ascii Content-ID: <Pine.SUN.3.96.980913075447.4421Gat_private> http://sun.soci.niu.edu/~crypt/other/adams.htm United Press International journalist James Adams' new book, "The Next World War," is a priceless example of how mainstream reporters continue to propagate old myths and hoaxes about information warfare. Adams recirculates the hoary tale of the Gulf War printer virus hoax in his book on the future of combat. If true, Crypt Newsletter supposes future combat will be mighty cheap, being fought primarily with dueling virus hoaxes and other info-war myths. This hoax's many permutations revolve around the central idea that the NSA developed a computer virus for use in the Gulf War, a virus that was used to disable the enemy's air defense system. Supposedly secreted in a microchip in a printer destined for Iraq, the virus was supposed to somehow emerge from the printer and bushwhack Iraqi air defense computers hooked to the same network. This was the result of a bald-faced April Fool's story that appeared in Infoworld magazine, subsequently taken seriously and presented as such by US News and World Report in "Triumph Without Victory," the latter publication's book on the Gulf War. "The Next World War" is just another in a long line of examples sprinkled through the mainstream media and other seemingly authoritative sources that have been taken in by this joke. Indeed, the Gulf War virus hoax is an almost inescapable component of computer lore -- the operative word being lore. Rob Rosenberger of Virus Myths comments, "Too bad [Adams] didn't do more research . . . [he] gives the story an interesting twist. The virus didn't get a chance to do its job because the U.S. Air Force accidentally bombed the building where Iraq stored the printers!" "The 'Gulf War printer virus' story carries no credibility, no matter how highly placed the source" or whatever mutation it appears in," added Rosenberger. However, the Gulf War virus hoax isn't the only virtual Piltdown Man to appear in "The Next World War." Adams also bites on the chupacabras of info-war, the electromagnetic pulse gun built from Radio Shack parts. In 1996, Forbes ASAP magazine interviewed a crew of hackers who insisted an electromagnetic pulse gun -- a kind of electric ray that could be used to destroy PCs from afar -- could be built from Radio Shack parts and car batteries. In the story, entitled "Hack Attack," the Forbes reporter queries the "dangerous ex-hackers" about electromagnetic pulse guns. In response they spin a fantastic tale of its use -- again, against Iraq. [Part of this interview appears in Adams' "The Next World War."] The section of the original from Forbes ASAP is digested here: Forbes writer: Have you ever heard of a device that directs magnetic signals at hard disks and can scramble the data? Dangerous ex-hackers, in unison: Yes! A HERF [high energy radio frequency] gun. Dangerous ex-hacker A: This is my nightmare. $300: a rucksack full of car batteries, a microcapacitor and a directional antenna and I could point it at Oracle . . . You could park it in a car and walk away. It's a $300 poor man's nuke . . . Dangerous ex-hacker A: There are only three or four people who know how to build them, and they're really tight lipped . . . We used these in the Persian Gulf. We cooked the radar installation. In other parts of the article the hackers comment that there are a lot of "snake oil salesmen" in the computer security business. "The Next World War's" mention of the electromagnetic pulse gun chupacabras is fairly characteristic of the literature on the subject. Claims are made of a mysterious technology capable of doing bad deeds to computer networks. The weapons are in the hands of hackers, criminals, terrorists, or shadowy Russian scientists -- never sources of much credibility or ones that can be easily located. No examples are ever produced. No incidents of computer damage by electromagnetic pulse gun are ever provided that can be independently verified. "The Next World War" is a good example of the problem faced by the average reader with little experience in the area of discussion. Simply, the layman has a great deal of difficulty distinguishing between hoaxes and reality, particulary once such tales have become embedded in sources traditionally taken to be "authoritative." --------------73155BC68FE-- -o- Subscribe: mail majordomoat_private with "subscribe isn". Today's ISN Sponsor: Repent Security Incorporated [www.repsec.com]
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