Frisk Goes Commercial
 
                   It seems Frisk has been selling out.
 
The Knights of Chaos are distributing a Virus Collectors Kit with a bunch of
AV utilities as well as some Zines and mostly binary viruses.  Neural
Nightmare got a hold of a message sent to his sysadmin from frisk@complex.is.
 
The message spoke of a "grey-list" Frisk is in possession of, and how he is
banning all these sites from his ftp site, the datafellows WWW page as well
as bbs and ftp site.  The sites on the grey list are undisclosed but he
threatened to add kaiwan.com to the list unless the sysadmin stopped the
"Virus Exchange" at their site.
 
The sysadmin laughed it off, so kaiwan.com has been added to the said grey
list.  As far as Frisk let on in his letter, the sites on the grey list are
those with poor security [by Frisk's standards] or those who offer viruses
through anonymous login.
 
The final part of the letter expressed his concern against the "Virus Exchange
Underground".  He strongly feels that virus exchange leads to nothing but more
viruses. [awwww]
 
I tried to get Frisk to talk to me about this by way of e-mail, but I received
no response.  The letter I sent to him (3 times) is at the end of this
document.
 
Not that it seems really new, but Frisk has just added his name to the list up
there with John McAfee and Patty Hoffman.  He has decided to sell out and
force his morals on others.  Well, there it is...
 
It also seems that the Official Anti-Virus software of Windows 95 is F-Prot
Gatekeeper.  Here is a smeg from datafellows:
 
-=-=-=-=-=-=-start smeg-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
*Data Fellows announces F-PROT Gatekeeper -the world's first proactive [?]
anti-virus utility for Microsoft Windows -- 10 November, 1994
 
Data Fellows has announced today the world's first truly effective
proactive anti-virus utility for Microsoft Windows.  The new utility is part
of the F-PROT Professional package. F-PROT is a multiple award winner in
anti-virus reviews and tests around the world. 
 
F-PROT Gatekeeper is a native device driver for Windows, which uses the award
winning Secure Scan [no heurustics?] scanning technology to scan all executed
or copied files. F-PROT Gatekeeper works for both Windows applications and DOS
applications.
 
The main difference between F-PROT Gatekeeper and the old DOS anti-virus TSRs
is that the DOS TSRs are restricted to using only the least memory consuming
and simplest methods to detect viruses.  F-PROT Gatekeeper is able to use a
full size scanning engine which detects all possible viruses. As more and more
of the modern viruses are polymorphic or encrypting, the ability to decrypt
viruses for identification is of central importance. For example, most
anti-virus TSRs have trouble finding the famous Mutation Engine (MtE) viruses
or the SMEG viruses.
 
F-PROT Gatekeeper is able to find all the known viruses on the fly. From now
on it is not necessary to protect a computer actively and still remain in
doubt whether all viruses would be found. With F-PROT Gatekeeper all viruses
will be found before they have a chance to activate.
 
"This is a very important step in the fight against the polymorphic
and encrypting viruses", says Risto Siilasmaa, managing director of Data
Fellows.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-end smeg-=-=-=-=-=-=-
 
Well, Frisk has pocketed a pretty penny I'm sure for that sale.  The problem
with big companies though is that they can't keep up with the rapidly growing
viruses.. F-Prot 2.17 was a couple of weeks late.. Hmmmmm...
 
At any rate, Frisk is holding hands with John McAfee and pocketing his
earnings while putting down the virus exchange.  We'll see how GateKeeper
works out and see the future of Frisk Intl.
 
                                        SCREECH!NG WEASEL
 
 
Dear Sir:
 
This letter is in regard to the "grey list" you made reference to about 
the virus distribution made available at kaiwan.com.
 
I felt strongly compelled to comment about your actions concerning 
disallowing the users from kaiwan.com access to your ftp site, WWW site, 
and personal technical support.
 
When I was informed about your actions concerning the public distribution 
of the Virus Collector Kits, I was more than appalled.  While it is
obvious you cannot support the creation of computer viruses, it seems 
hypocritical to try to diminish their public distribution.
 
The University I attend is currently a customer of Frisk Intl., and uses 
F-Prot as their main source of anti-virus protection in all of their 
academic computer labs.  My question to you is this:  If I were to offer 
computer viruses for research via anonymous ftp or other means, would my 
school, a customer of Frisk Intl., also be included on the said "grey list"?
 
I am curious about the integrity of Frisk Intl, curious enough to "try 
out" your threats of being denied support from Frisk Intl.  Where do you 
draw the line between public/customer support, and your personal 
feelings about virus distribution.
 
I also feel compelled to point out you're freely offering disassembled source
of particular viruses.   I would readily consider this "virus distribution"
and view it as hypocrisy on your part, at best.
 
I hopefully await a response concerning this matter.  If you would prefer 
to speak rather than communicate via e-mail, I would be more than happy 
to make any arrangements you see fit.
 
Please, consider this query, and reply with an appropriate response.
 
sweasel@netherlands.ypsi.mi.us
 
P.S.  nether.net is now banned from the following sites:
          bbs.datafellows.fi
          http://www.datafellows.fi
          ftp.complex.is
          ftp.datafellows.fi