| From: | Dodger <uns016@*****.LANCS.AC.UK> |
|---|---|
| Subject: | The Crash. |
| Date: | Sat, 28 Jan 1995 20:41:08 +0000 |
| Virussen seldom just materialize out of the void of cyberspace, they are
| usually intentionally made.
| Sure there are cases of mutated computer programs, but they don't grow
| out to be powerful viruses unless someone made it to become that.
I think it could be possible for a computer virus to evolve totally
accidentally, without actually being engineered by anyone. Unlikely,
but possible.
| So who initiated it ?
| Who benefitted from it ?
| And why did they initiat it ?
| Was it a strike from one of the major corps to weaken all of their
| opponents att once, or was it a consiracy of some of the major corps to
| destroy the US government and the power of the united nations ?
| Japan ? The CIA, trying to cover-up some really major incident? A runaway
| student joke ?
The runaway student joke idea may not be as silly as it seems at first
glance. Anyone who knows about the Internet worm, started by Robert
Morris will know what I mean. I think that it's important to remember that
an awful lot of research into new technology gets done in Universities,
often sponsored by big companies who will eventually utilise the technology
being developed. It's much the same case with software. For example, one of
my friends here is developing a 3-D engine, by himself that takes up less
than a third of the space that normal 3-D packages utilise.
I think it's very possible that a student discovered, during the course of
his studies with ASIST technology, some way of desiging a virus that simply
kicked ass, and perhaps, in the course of testing it, lost control over it,
resulting in it spreading across the Internet/InfoSuperHighway, destroying
data across the world.
One fact I think is very interesting is that the virus struck at most, two
months after Echo Mirage had been formed. During the events which followed
EM's mobilisation, EM were in the unique position of being able to observe
the effects of the lethal biofeedback produced by the virus, which resulted
in the deaths of many of the Echo Mirage team members. They also had
practically free reign of the computer networks, including the corps'
systems. Furthermore, the existence of the virus gave them the opportunity
or excuse to recruit the best minds from the computer and software
industries to combat the virus. By the time the virus had been destroyed,
Echo Mirage certainly knew more about operating and fighting in cyberspace
than anyone else and they knew everything there was to know about the Virus
and it's lethal effects. Furthermore, they employed the people who had
developed the cyber-technology, and were in the position of being able to
heavily influence the construction and development of the Matrix. They had
also had the opportunity to go through any online data left intact by the
virus. That's a pretty hefty list of advantages, when the world is on the
brink of a new era in information technology. Also consider the following -
the Head of Echo Mirage disappeared without a trace. In 2034 the first
gray-market cyberdeck is released by a company headed by two ex-EM members
who decamped to the private sector. Less than two months later, both died,
and the company's computer crashed. Finally, who codes the blackest ICe?
The military.
Theory - The US Government engineered and released the virus, with the
following objectives -
1. The US, through Echo Mirage, looks real good, when it eliminates
the virus. Note that the US and Canada agreed to merge shortly
after Echo Mirage began to eliminate the virus.
2. Echo Mirage had free reign of the world's data systems. Anything
that hadn't been destroyed was an open book to them. Don't forget
that the virus could have been a data-gathering program as well
as a destructive virus.
3. The Virus marked a turning point in international data
communications. The Matrix was born out of the chaos following the
Crash. It's possible that the US Government foresaw this, and
caused the Crash in order to speed up the development of the
Matrix. Plus, the knowledge the US gained in combatting the Virus,
meant that they had a massive head start in the fields of
cybercombat, and the development of IC.
So, what do people think?
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\> John Gavigan - uns016 @ cent1.lancs.ac.uk
There's a war out there, old friend, a world war. And it's not about
who's got the most bullets. It's about who controls the information.
What we see and hear, how we work, what we think.
It's all about the information.
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