Interview with Del Armg0/MATRiX


Interviewer: EXE-Gency


Give us a short description of who you are. (Handle, interests, occupation, music, films, location, marital status etc.)

I'm 27, lot's girls and one of my nick in life is Fa, humm ... what's more...¿ I'm somebody very curious in fact... lot's hobbys (vx, phreak, short- wave listener, role-playing-game, playing electronic music too, astronomy, ... i'm happy when i'm learning in fact ;) Some of my favorites films are "Eraserhead", "CryingFreeman", "Buffet Froid", ... And i luv music-band like "stereolab", "gong", "bauhaus", ... and many more !

What made you choose your handle?

lot's ppl have asked me about it... it's "simply" a name from a AD&D campaign (during 6 years!), there was a character i played as dungeon master, she was called "Larynda Nedylene Barrisson Del'ArmgO", it was a famous Martial Drow family, and a very fun game, so... i kept the name.

Have you ever had any previous identities in the computer underground?

nop, i was since i've starting known as Del_Armg0, but it's true for some viral experience i use sometimes another nick... it's rare. But since the JC'Zic bust, i prefer to be discreet... sometimes.

When did you first get into computers?

I've started on a Amstrad cpc 464, and a thomson MO5 !!! Was really shit but really fun. After that i've meet the Atari world, and it was great moment. Atari 520/1040 ST was really great. And in 1996, i've bought a PC under windows... humm no comment!

What operating system(s) are you currently running?

I've a first 'puter with Win95, a 486 with a russian Dos (a graphic Dos) called Pts-Dos 6.70 and Win 3.1, i like it a lot. And i'm ever using a Atari 1040 (Tos) At work i'm using Win NT, just shit! I hope i will try Win2k soon, i'm sure it will be a great OS for Vx ;)

How and when did you first discover the computer underground?

Humm... a bit "just like that", i had bought a modem to meet or know more about Underground Electronic ppl... and it's easy to find evil on the Net ;]

How did you first get into virus programming?

I've started coding to made virus, but i guess the first idea to made a virus come from the first discovered virus when i was younger, it was really new. And lot's hype was made around it. It was Cpc virus, but i've forgotten the name, the fascination is always here.. Probably some movies like "Wargames" or "Tron" are importants in the story...

Do you have an interest in the other components of the computer underground? (hack/phreak/warez etc.)

Yep. I'm a great fanatic of phreaking, it's a really great and fun "game". Phone network is full of marvellous things... and i'm lucky, i'm now working in phone network. Hacking is cool, but sometimes too much full of "big-EGO-people", so i prefer try it alone.

Do you consider yourself to be a criminal?

Really not ! But here in France, it's really easy to be one, and for cops i'm probably one... (drug, phreak, vx, ... it's just fun life). But why all cool things of life are illegals !!!?¿

Do the laws in your contry make writing viruses illegal and have you had any trouble with the law in your country?

Yes, laws here are very bad for H/P/V; i've never be busted and i hope i won't be! But i'm sometimes tired to be paranoid when i'm connected... (proxys, wingates and others anonymisers...). Sabia is probably the worst spreading i did, and my ISP leaves me.. arrgghhhh! ... but ..but Viva phone S.E. ;)

Do your friends/family/colleagues know about your interest in the computer underground?

Yep, some of them know about it, but really few. It's bad ideas to talk about it because when u send a mail to your friend, he's always afraid ;), and 99% of mass ppl really don't care about vx, so...

What are your opinions on virii with destructive payloads?

I never did it, cos i don't like it very much... I guess some coders are good coders, but not really imaginative... Virus are artworks, but destruction can be art, so...why not... It's a really great and endless debate, but to my mind, a destructive program is not really a virus. Virus must spread and spread, so why to kill the host and kill himself, in the same time ?

How did you get involved with the Matrix virus group?

mort was a good electronic friend, some groups ask me for joining, but i was not interrested, i said it to mort, and so he asks me to join MATRiX, this time i said "ok".

Does the Matrix group concern themselves with virus programming only or do they have an interest in other underground topics?

Actually MATRiX concern only virus coding, but i hope i could introduce some others subjects like phreaking, trojans, hacking, ...

Have you been a member of any other groups?

Nop, and i've never thought to be in a group, i liked to be alone; but it could be a good experience (and mort is a really good friend).

Why did you start learning to program? Was it because you wanted to write computer viruses.

i've started to program in 1998 with Delphi, and yes i've started learning to program to write viruses/trojans. So fastly i've learn asm, i've again to learn asm32 (i'be start). I like a lot to learn some toys or silly languages like VB, VDscript, batch, rebol, javascript,...

What other languages can you program in?

Delphi/Pascal, Asm/Asm32 for serious coding Vba/Vbs, html/wml, and some others scripting languages, for silly things I find Rebol very interesting too (31 platforms !!) I like Toys like PcomP, VDS, M:POSTER,...

What do you think of viruses written in languages other than assembly?

i like it! hehehe! Yes, i like all virus, worms or trojans. Some of them are really nice and ingenious but not in asm; too much virii are variants of a variant actually, probably cos the big number of asm source on the Net.

What is the best/favourite virus you have written so far?

Wooo! Really hard...! but IRC-Worm.ElSpy.2278 & .9619 was great worm at this time, it was my really first, and they had some cool features. i liked a lot my script generator too, called "SENSI". And my prog "Bundy" cos' the silly splash screen.

What groups do you value most highly?

I guess 29A is one of the most prolific and original group of the present time. Perhaps even too present.. i liked Phalcon-Skism, Immortal Riot, SLAM ... but it's a bit old..skool

Which individual programmers (both past and present) do you value most highly?

Wooo, really hard to answer! But i like legend like DarkAvenger and stories like that. Bulgarian Myth is great. The text about it are nice novels

What zines do you read regularly?

Really a lot! I read almost all E-zines about Vx and Phreaking, i read some french Hacking zines too. (www.madchat.org) Cool H/P zines are PyroFreak, IGA, Hackoff, ... ... ... For Vx Zines, 29A & Vxtasy are perhaps the bests (after MATRiX zine, of course:)

What do you think of the virus scene? (Both in general and in your own country.)

I know well the vx trading scene, and there is too much politics... About vx scene, it's a cool place, but too much young people don't want to see that in vx coding there's an EGO part. Hahahaha! I have some electronic friends, but i'm sometimes a bit away from vx scene.

How has the underground scene changed since you first entered? Scene has changed yes, but scene changed so fastly. Guy appears, disappears,... But since the beginning i've kept some good electronic friend in vx scene, it's enough for me. (booohh Phage!;(

What do you think the future of virus writing holds?

It will depend on different things, like OS. If Linux becomes the main OS it will be a revolution for vxers, probably the scene will be totally changed. And more networks and networking application appear, more worms come too. So future of virus is more in the hand of mass ppl than in our hands.

Do you believe in a 'perfect virus'? And if so describe it.

A Worm of course :), Joke! But i believe really that the future of the virus is in the worm properties, The next generation of viral code must have abilities to infect the new hardwares (like mobil-phone) and spread using new protocols. WAP network, GRPS and UMTS protocol will be used by phone and tiny computer, the virus will have to use worm technics to spread between phones, computers and other palm & psion. I like the idea of a Autonomous Mobile Cyber Weapon (AMCW) too. The perfect virus will have to use main worm features, will know and find his target and infecting files traded by network user (like pictures, ...yes my dream will be to infect .jpg :)

What advice would you give to newbies entering the virus scene?

download, print, read, download, print, read, download, print, read, ... After 6 months like that, come on Irc to meet some ppl and code, code, code, ... A good thing is really to learn the maximum possible things, learn some languages, learn about OS, learn about protocol, learn about people, learn, learn, learn, ...

What language should a newbie learn if he wants to start writing viruses?

It depends really of the newbie, learn Asm first is good to learn some universal maths/coding theories, after Asm all others languages seems easy, hehehe. But the better thing to do is to try all, to learn again and again. All languages are good if u know really this language, the hardest is perhaps to find THE language.

Anything you would like to add?

I guess no, lot's things have been said. And i'm not somebody very talkative (gossipy?) cya.

Any greets?

Yes a lot!!! Greets to : Phage, Perikles, VirusBust, MATRiX team, HomeSlice, Daniel3 Lyskovick, Secret_- Trov, ArteMuse, pbat, mort, Ultras, NBK, TGR, LordDark, Anaktos U, Iblis, W0de, FreDyKrug, Elsa, MelanYe,Roadkill, Zulu, Mist, Urgo32, me, hashish, all!

Any plugs? (Homepage, email address etc.)

Sure !
mailto: delly@fr.st
http://www.delly.fr.st
http://www.coderz.net/matrix