with track gauge different from other
countries to ensure their isolation. How-
e`'er, this is the age of teie~ision, not
railroads.

	People in East Europe receive Western
television. The USSR no`~'produces some
~ideo tape cameras and pla~ers.3' When
computers and television merge the
results can on~y be called "radicai."

	Joel Schatz has a pro~ect called Ark. He
malces it possible for people from the
USA and the USSR to communicate via
slow scan television and computer. Ele-
ments in both governments fear him.
Americans cannot be allowed to discover
that most people in Russia like living
there. The peopIe in the VSSR cannot be
allowed to learn that most Americans live
like kings.32

"In all, the Soviets hsve
produeed perhaps more
than 50,000 personal
computers."

	Schatz suffered a series of bureau-
cratic hassles. He had to run interference
for himself dealing vvith the governments
of the USA, IJ5S~, Britain, and Turkey. He
triumphed. On New Year's Eve 1985/
1986 he finally got his linkup to work.
This was the first efTort of what Schatz
likes to call "Two Track Diplomacy."
Scientists from the USSR and USA dis-
cussed peacefnl uses of outer space and
celebrated the 25th anniversary of the
laser.33

	The next stage is for teens from the
Soviet Union and America to use slow
scan tele``ision and computers to discuss
alcoholism.34 Bear in mind that of~cials
from the US and their clones in the USSR
put ~Ip obstacles. Schatz just works that
much harder.

	This "two track diplomacy~'also can be
[ound on the PeaceNet computer bulletin
board. You can access PeaceNet via Tel-
enet (a long-distance packet carrier that
you dial locally). PeaceNet (Host 408346)
serves dozens of leftwing and alternative
social action groups. The Central Ameri-
can Resource Network, the Beyond War
Fonndation, and others, give A'nericans
access to people that the American
government has bnilt a "Berlin Wall,'
around

	The USA/ NATO and Japan have decided
not to export high-tech dev~ces like the
IBM-PC/XT and PE/AT to the USSR. How-
ever, it is legal to export B-bit computers
like the TRS-80, VIC-2O, Apple II or l'plain
vanilla" IB\1 PC.35 This, despite the fact
that the Apple II can be modified to
control misstle firing.36 Of course, this
''mod~fication/' is easy to accomplish.

''The computer revoln
tion in America came
from dropauts, weirdos
and nerds. Until the
lJSSR can tolerate these
people, they will never
capture the power of the
computer."

	There are at least a million people in
Arneric~ who could program an Apple II
to run a coordinate output device. Ihere
are so many systems analysts in America
that estimates from seven sources range
from 370,000 to 2.9 m~llion. And there
are still those 2 5 million home
computers.

	Consider that the 8-bit computers l~ke
the Apple II are now obsolete in America.
You can buy a TI-99 or YIC-20 for bar-
gain basement prices. Today's home
computers (Macintosh, Atari ST, Amiga,

etc.) are all 1 6-bit machines. They are not
ava~lable to the USSR. Yet/ the 8-bit
machines will serve Soviet yonng peuple
quite well. If the USSR wants a computer
literate society, they should buy all the
outdated S-~t machines in America.

	"Catching up to the West" is relative It
is quite true that the IJSSE as a nation
cannot meet the standards common in
America as a nation. However, it is a
grave error to assume that the USSR has
no hackers.37,~8,39 First of all, the modifi-
cations made to the Apple to produce the
Agat were done by somebodyin the USSR.
Even iE they have "very few~' computers
they still have thousands upon thousands
of computers. If you have computers, you
have computer nerds: hackers.

	Soviet hackers are called"Sinclairists"
(after the machines bnilt by the British
indusTrialist, Clive Sinclair). The Timex
Sinclair was sold in America around
1980. It ran on just four chips and
weighed less than half a kilogram. There
are other Sinclair computers, mostly sold
in the Old World.

'`If technology existed in
a vacunm, the Soviets
might aclually be able to
harness computer power
for themselves. The fact
is that to have technol.
ogy you hsve to have
freedem.''

	You can bet that there are talentec
young Soviets who spend their time writ-
ing their own programs. These hackerc
have little opportunity for {he kind oi
''hool~gctnism'' tbat plagues the USA. In
America, you can gain ~nauthorized
access to a computer because we ha`-E
the world's best telephone system. In thc

U.S. Computer Varu~ls L~arn to Program Havoc

~y Mark McCain
h'~w Y ork T.r~n~i S~rvicr

	NEW YORKÄA new breed oE vandals, worLing within
the vast netv~ork of U.S. computer ''bullelin boards," are
devising sophisticated software programs tbat erase and
scramble th" computer files oE uns~specting users.

	The practice is stirnng mtstrust and anger arneng business
c~ecutives, acedenuos and hobbyists who exchange free
computer software on the bulleLin boards.

	llle vandals, using telephone links Erom their computers,
are transferring the destructive prograrns onto the hunetin
bo~rds, hoping to fool thousands of people into duplicating
the programs to use tn their own computers at great hann.

	"It's like paisoning the candy in the supe~market on
Halloween," said Ross !~. Greenberg, a Manhatt;an comput-
er consultant. "I guess the penple who devise these things
take pleasute in destro~ng other poopie's worl:."

	Fhe programs began appeartng severai ye~rs ago and now
have reeched a ievei of sophistication that allows lhem to
sometimes outfox computer experts who are on guard for
them.

	I{nown as TroJan horses, or more fa~niliarly as Trojans
the programs pretend to be something useEul, lilce ~ word
orocessor or game board. But they are electronic terrorists,
readY to erase or scramble data stored in compulers.

	Arnong the dozens oE Trojans in circulation, some hegin
their destruction within minutes Others perform as iegiti-
matc software Eor wecks or months. then tauch off ar~
.lectronic tirr~e homb.

	"A person may iose iive minutes of workÄor two vears
`~[ ~ ork." said Mr Greenberg. uho maintains several ';tools
®,f defense" aguinst Trojans. including a soEtware program

that alerts him to suspicious activity within his personal
c~mputer.

	Like hundreds oE other computer cnthusiasts across the
c~untry, Mr. GreenberB operates a computer bulletin board
as a pubLic serYice. Each sysop, shortband Eor system opera-
tor, as the board operators are called, keeps a computer
hooked up to a telephone line 24 hours a day, providing a

'Over a year o! work couId be
destroyed. If you're using the
computer for business' how do
you explain ~hat sort of thing to

your boss?'

ÄEric lVe~c~wuse, ~ computer expert

ciearing house for hundreds of Ir® "public domain" soft-
ware programs.

	People connect their computers into the buDetin boards,
via lei~phone-hookup devices called modems, both to do-
nate prograrns and make copies of programs aiready po~sted
on the hoards.

	llle Trojan software represents another chapter in the
exp]oits of the computer hachers, who invest countless hours
in computenzed subterfuge.

	"Therc are hacks out there who really amuse people wilh
their cieverness," said Dave Hayer, an as~istanl professor of
malhemalics al Columbia University in New York "But the

hacks who úvrite Trojans are simply mean-spiiited and
malicious There's no shil involved in trashirtg people's hard
disks."

	A hard disk, the primary storageurlit of advanced person-
al computers, cen hold the equivalent of 400 to 1,200 pages
of single-spaced typewriuen data. Like tape cassettes, the
disks c~n be erased, intentionally or not.

	The Trojans work by giving the compliter trtterna] instruc-
tions, but while pretending to perform some legitimate
function the instructions amount to electronic suicide. Sorne
Trojans only scramble or erase the `'file allocation tabie," the
computer's ~ndex of wherc data are siored on a hard dislL. A
user can often still retrieve the data. allhough witb difficulty.

	I]ut othrrs'aftor erasing the table, proceed to instruct the
computer to do a "low-lovel format," or erasure, of the cntire
d~sk.

	4'Concavahly, upwards of over a year of work couid be
destroyed," said E.ric Newhouse, an 18-year-old computer
expert in Los Angeles. "If you're using the computer for
business, how do you explain that sort of lhing to your
boss?"

	Users are adjusling to computer tetrorism by increasing
securtty. Most bulletin board operators are beginning to
check the identity of poople who call up tbeir boards. And
they arc testing suspicious programs.

	Hut even if a Trojan perpetratot were identifie4, it is
oncertain whether any stale or federal laws provide [or
proseculing that person.

	"A[ler you've been bit once," said Charies E:. RAW]S a
Manhanan con~p~ter user, "you look at every softwarc
program with a skeplical eye. Bul every once in a while, one
of thcm still sneaks by."

