Part 102 (1/2)
A bustle of activity and a man spoke to the dais without the assistance of a microphone ”Yessir, I am”
Sternman was definitely the acade brown suit covering a small hunched body that was no more than 45 years old He held an old scratched brief- case and an armful of folders and envelopes Scott was reh school student that jocks enjoy tripping with their feet Dr Sternhten the papers that fell onto the desk and his performance received a brief titter from the crowd
”Ah, yes, Mr Chairman,” Sternman said ”I'm ready now” Rick- field looked as bored as ever
”Thank you, Dr Sternman You are, I understand, a computer virus expert? Is that correct?”
”Yessir My doctoral thesis was on the subject and I have spent several years researching coation” Rickfield groaned to hiible mumbo jumbo
”I also understand that your comments will be brief as we have someone else yet to hear from today” It was as much a command as a question
”Yessir, it will be brief”
”Then, please, enlighten us, what is a virus expert and what do you do?” Rickfield grinned ly at Dr Les Sternman, Pro- fessor of Applied Theoretical Mathey
”I believe the committee has received an advance copy of soer they represent?” Rickfield hadn't read anything, so he looked at Boyers who also shrugged his shoulders
”Yes, Dr Sternman,” Nancy Deere said, ”and we thank you for your consideration” Rickfield glared at her as she politely upstaged hih, that you provide a brief description of a computer virus for the benefit of those who have not read your presentation?” She stuck it to Rickfield again
”I'd be happy to, madam Chairwoman,” he said nonchalantly Rick- field's neck turned red at the inadvertent sudden rise in Senator Deere's stature For the next several minutes Sternman solemnly described what a virus was, hoorked and a history of their attacks He told the coic Bombs, Stealth Viruses, Crystal Viruses and an assorted farams
Despite Sternman's sermonly
”The reason you are here, Dr Stern us up to speed on computer viruses, which you have done with alacrity, and we appreciate that” Rickfield held seniority, but Nancy Deere took charge due to her preparation ”Now that we have an under- standing of the virus, can you give us an idea of the type of problems that they cause?”
”Ah, yes, but I need to say so here,” Sternman said
”Please, proceed,” Rickfield said politely
”When I first heard about replicating software, viruses, and this was over 15 years ago, I, as ht of then subset of comput- er software that had no anticipated applications We spentsoftware and built mathematical models of their behavior which fit quite neatly in the do discovery befell us We proved mathematically that there is absolutely no effective way to protect against coh of the spectators had heard about viruses over the past few years to co state- ment Even Senator Rickfield joined Nancy and the others in their awe No way to combat viruses? Dr Sternman had dropped a bombshell on them
”Dr Sternman,” said Senator Deere, ”could you repeat that?
”Yes, yes,” Stern the impact of his state- ment ”That is correct A virus is a piece of software and software is designed to do specific tasks in a hardware environ- ment All software uses basically the same techniques to do its job Without all of the technicalities, if one piece of software can do so, another piece of software can un-do it It's kind of a coraainst that one virus It works But then I e in the virus to attack or bypass your software, and Poof! I blow you away Then you build a new piece of software to defend against both my first virus and my mutated virus and that works until I build yet another This process can go on forever, and frankly, it's just not worth the effort”
”What is not worth the effort, Doctor?” Asked Nancy Deere ”You paint a most bleak picture”
”I don't - ly up at the colasses
”I wasn't atteuesses They are facts It is not worth the effort to fight computer viruses with software The virus builders in because the Virus Busters are the ones playing catch-up”
”Virus Busters?” Senator Rickfieldhis eyebrows His reaction elicited a wave of laughter from the hall
”Yessir,” said Dr Sternman to Rickfield ”Virus Busters
That's a terht viruses They ht viruses with defensive software and sora at all
”You see, there is no way to write a program that can predict the potential behavior of other software in such a way that it will not interfere with normal computer operations So, the only way to find a virus is to already knohat it looks like, and go out looking for it There are several major problems with this approach First of all, the virus has already struck and done soe Two it has already infected other software and will continue to spread Three, a progra a unique signature for each virus, and the vaccine for the virus must be distributed to the computer users