The Hotline Users Digest #161 - Friday, April 25, 1997

  TROJAN HORSE
          by  Marc Gray <flash@macconnect.com>
  Re: TROJAN HORSE
          by  Corey <ReDoG@mail.creativeonline.com>
  Re: TROJAN HORSE
          by  Sermed Naaman (Admin) <snaaman@lhs.fuhsd.org>
  Re: Macline happenings... wassup  README!
          by  David Murphy <david@HotlineSW.com>


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Subject: TROJAN HORSE
From: Marc Gray <flash@macconnect.com>
Date: Thu, 24 Apr 1997 19:21:59 -0400

* W_A_R_N_I_N_G *   There is a nasty little bugger that I picked up from
one of the Hotline Sites. I cannot recall from where it came.

Do NOT download anything called Speed Doubler3.0b.

First it transformed my arrow cursor into an arrow with a mind of it's own.
This was not too terribly awful. It had a humorous component. Sort of. Then
I restarted, only to receive a blinking question mark for awhile before my
precious new clone <Motorola 4000/160> would boot. Next, everything seemed
alright. That was until I attempted to launch something from my Apple Menu.
GONE. Nothing there but "About this computer ...". Now I suspected that any
app with the apple menu item code had had its invisible flag sent. I used
several utilities to view invisible files. No luck. Seemingly gone! Then I
attempted to rescue the items. No luck. Now here is the weirdest part. The
items eventually returned! Meanwhile, the trojan horse deleted itself!

There are two other's floating around the hotlines. One is called
Immaculate Conception. The other <cannot recall the name> is identical. It
had a name that suggested improved performance. Upon launch it puts up a
progress bar and informs you that all your directories are being deleted.
When you restart you get a flashing questionmark. Fortunately, this is all
bogus. Nothing has transpired.


Marc "Flash" Gray



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Subject: Re: TROJAN HORSE
From: Corey <ReDoG@mail.creativeonline.com>
Date: Thu, 24 Apr 1997 20:43:02 -0400

You idiot. It wasn't in Speed Doubler 3.0b, it was in Ram Doubler 3.0b.
And the virus was the ZUC A/B virus. You can't delete it. Beware!!!!!!!

-ReDoG

"May The Schwartz Be With You"

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Subject: Re: TROJAN HORSE
From: "Sermed Naaman (Admin)" <snaaman@lhs.fuhsd.org>
Date: Thu, 24 Apr 1997 19:12:12 -0700 (PDT)

>The other <cannot recall the name> is identical. It
>had a name that suggested improved performance. Upon launch it puts up a
>progress bar and informs you that all your directories are being deleted.
>When you restart you get a flashing questionmark. Fortunately, this is
>all
>bogus. Nothing has transpired.
 
That sounds like "Hard Drive check", a completely harmless pratical joke.
It pretends to erase your drive and produces a fake restart sound (a
quadra chime) and a question mark disk icon. Just cmd-opt-esc to quit the
app. It's actually pretty funny when used on someone but completely
harmless. The other "trojan horse" is the Zuc A/B virus. Virex should get
it.

Sermed Naaman
snaaman@lhs.fuhsd.org
http://lhs.fuhsd.org/~snaaman/


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Subject: Re: Macline happenings... wassup  README!
From: David Murphy <david@HotlineSW.com>
Date: Fri, 25 Apr 97 01:20:27 -0400

On 4/23/97, Macline Admin Philipp Conrad <zini@cyborganic.net> wrote:

>hey friends...  sup y'all....

Philipp, and fellow netizens,

On behalf of Hotline Communications and myself, I would like to voice our 
support of and extreme appreciation for Macline, the Official Mac-Related 
Hotline Server.

The unprecedented growth and popularity of Hotline is due primarily to 
the wondrous services that Macline has given--and continues to 
provide--to the Mac community at large (free of charge!). Between hosting 
a very successful interview with Ambrosia Software's Andrew Welch, to 
providing an astonishingly wide variety of software for download, to 
creating a close online community, Macline has played an intergal roll in 
the development of Hotline into the award winning product that it is 
today.

On a more personal note, *I* would like to express my heartfelt thanks to 
Macline for the many hours thought-provoking discussion and plain-ol'-fun 
that I have passed away [some might say wasted away, but thy would be 
wrong :>] on what I see as the best server--no, the best online 
community--out there!

<...>
>personally we can't stop the spammers.  They come in and they spam.

Right now, you're right--You can't do too much t prevent the spammers 
from doing their acts. However, I do have a one idea that could possibly 
prevent some SPAMing. I welcome discussion on this:

-> For a predetermined period of time, guests (or users) would not be 
able to post large messages (or many many small messages) to chat. This 
would reject the enormous, repetitive word junk that I've seen disrupt 
the chat. [All of this would need to be programed into Hotline itself.]

>people complain that there are too many rules... yet you say you want =
>more admins to be here to monitor the chat

Personally, I'd prefer to have a lot of rules and a nice environment over 
few rules and an abuse of the freedom.

>well... we are getting some chat admins so we can try to be here 24/7

Great! I wish you well. (I, myself, would be happy to monitor the chat 
while I am connected to Macline (user: "{^v^}")).

>I'm really sad that you guys hate this place.  it's my site.. I love =
>it with all my heart and I hate to see it go.

Ho ho ho! Please do not over generalize! Tons of people adore your server 
(myself included). Unfortunately, the people with the complaints are the 
most vocal.

>it may be going down this summer... but I don't know yet.  

While I understand that Macline is currently run through your school, it 
would be a heavy loss indeed to be separated from Macline. Oh! What would 
we do with our lives? =( God forbid that we'd be forced to have a social 
life outside of the Macworld! aghhhhhhhhhhhhhh......!

>well...   it's as much your guyzes site as it is mine.
>you can email me personally (zini@macline.net) anytime with =
>suggestions and stuff.  The more people use Hotline.. the more people =
>come here to spam.

...and the more people who come there not to spam, but to enjoy the 
spectacular services that you offer.

<...>

Now and in the future, I predict a great migration of Mac addicts from 
the land of the newsgroups and mailing lists to the place where all the 
cool stuff and great people are to be found...Macline!

>cool guys.... Macline rules!

Nah....

 __  __            _ _              ____        _           _
|  \/  | __ _  ___| (_)_ __   ___  |  _ \ _   _| | ___  ___| |
| |\/| |/ _` |/ __| | | '_ \ / _ \ | |_) | | | | |/ _ \/ __| |
| |  | | (_| | (__| | | | | |  __/ |  _ <| |_| | |  __/\__ \_|
|_|  |_|\__,_|\___|_|_|_| |_|\___| |_| \_\\__,_|_|\___||___(_)

                                        ...in a BIG way! =)

Faithfully,
David C. Murphy

...........................................................
 /|  _
/ | | |                     David Murphy
| |_| |                     Media Relations Director
|  _  | O T L I N E
| | | |COMMUNICATIONS       david@HotlineSW.com
|_| | |                     http://www.HotlineSW.com
    |/                      Hotline nickname: "{^v^}"


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