Interview with Dark Fiber
Interviewer: T-2000
Tell us a bit about yourself, hobbies, music, etc.
Music wise my likes are pretty broad, most of my CD collectoin is
made up of Industrial music (Front242, Front Line Assembly, Skinny Puppy, etc), but right now I'm heavily listening to Loreena McKennitt
who does celtic styled music, and I also love JPOP (japanese pop music).
Outside of music, my hobbies are Wing Chun Kuen kungfu which I have been doing for 5-6 odd years now, which is my main 'hobby'.
I'm also an avid anime/manga junkie. I have cupboards full of original untranslated japanese manga.
How did you get your handle? Is there a specific
meaning behind it?
Back in the early 80's I remember some show (an anime) which name i dont
remember the name of, a fuedal japan setting. A Ninja used a "dark fiber" to strangle his enemy. It has nothing at all to do with fiber optic cable
or anything like that.
How and when did you start out with computers?
phew. a looong time ago. were talking back in the days when people
had vic20's and trs-80's. i dont really remember the how but iirc, it was a christmas present.
Which programming languages do you know and which ones do you prefer using?
As of right now, C, C++, VB(+VBA), SQL. I've forgotten several I used to
know like Cobol, Lisp, etc.
I like C for is flexibility, and SQL, its amazing what SQL can do for a 3GL.
How and why did you start out with virii?
A lot of my disks became infected with "stoned" and i became intrigued.
My mate Australian Parasite and i were big into cracking and training back then (circa late 80's, 87?88?). the only viruses around were stoned
and cascade and there was no such thing as "original" sources only really bad dissasemblies.
What (virus-)groups are you/have been a member of?
Um thinking back, AIH, [NuKE]. Not counting partial group membership
things and the like.
Are you active in other scenes, or have you been?
Demo coding and 'utils' type scene and the OS Dev stuff.
Are there irl people that know of your vx 'career'?
Yeah a few i think had some inkling.
Which virii have you written and which ones do you like most?
Looking back, I dont really like any of them now.
Have you ever released any of them in the wild? If so, how?
Yes, on the back of McAffee's SCAN/CLEAN once or twice.
Were they destructive?
Some had destructive payloads. Only 1 or 2 I think. Most were harmless.
Are any of your virii in the wild?
Some were wild in Australia. It wasnt something I really tracked.
What is your view about destructive payloads?
I'm against it. A virus as a mechanism of destruction doesnt really work,
since it needs to survive. If you want a destruction mechanism you have trojan horses and stuff for taking out someone specifics hard drive etc.
How do you name your virii?
Very hard to pin down. I read widely, thats where i draw some stuff from,
mostly its spur of the moment things like a word from a song or phrase. split second was named after the movie and jitr bugs was named after a
new amiga virus was discovered in australia called jitrs. most of the time they didnt have names. there are a lot of injokes of course.
What are your favourite e-zines?
IR had more interesting things to read (article wise). VLAD + 40Hex were all about source code and less about articles.
What are your favourite viruses and why?
I dont really remember anymore.
Which persons in the scene do you respect most?
I have not followed the scene in many years, so my answer is
'I don't'.
Which ones do you disrespect most?
Aristotle+Falcon
What VX technique are you most interested in?
I was most interested in polymorphic engines way back when.
What do you think about macro/script virii?
They are all skillless garbage.
Do you have any goals VX-wise?
no, I quit a long time ago.
Is there any way you can be reached?
yeah. my email address is easy to find if anyone looks.
Any plans in the future as a coder and in general?
OS-Development stuff and interactive fiction.
Any last words/greets?
Slash Wu (who i still see on IRC sometimes) - Keep your head above water!
(he's doing service in taiwans navy...)