WANK (computer worm)

The WANK Worm was a computer worm that attacked DEC VMS computers in 1989 over the DECnet.

Political message

The WANK worm had a distinct political message attached, and it was the first major worm to have a political message.Dreyfus, Suelette. Underground, "Introduction", "http://www.xs4all.nl/~suelette/underground/justin/introduction.html"] WANK in this context stands for Worms Against Nuclear Killers.

W O R M S A G A I N S T N U C L E A R K I L L E R S _______________________________________________________________ __ ____________ _____ ________ ____ ____ __ _____/ / / / / / | | | | | / / / / / / / /__ | | | | | |/ / / / / / / / ______ | | | | | | / _ /__ /____/ /______ ____| |__ | |____| |_ _/ ___________________________________________________/ / Your System Has Been Officically WANKed / _____________________________________________/

You talk of times of peace for all, and then prepare for war.

It did not attack computers within the DEC area 48, which was New Zealand. It is thought that this was because New Zealand was a nuclear free zone which had recently forbidden U.S. nuclear-powered vessels from docking at it's harbours.Dreyfus, Suelette. Underground, "Chapter 1", "http://www.xs4all.nl/~suelette/underground/justin/chapter_1.html"] The line "You talk of times of peace for all, and then prepare for war" is drawn from the lyrics of a Midnight Oil song; Midnight Oil are an Australian punk rock band known for their political activism and opposition to both nuclear power and nuclear weapons. The process name of the second version of the worm to be detected was "oilz", an Australian shorthand term for the band. [Dreyfuss, Suelette (1998) Computer Hackers: juvenile delinquents or international saboteurs? Presented at the February 1998 Internet Crime conference held by the Australian Institute of Criminology. Available online: http://www.aic.gov.au/conferences/internet/dreyfus.pdf]

Playful nature

In addition to its political message, the worm contained several features of an apparently playful nature. The words "wank" and "wanked" are slang terms used in Australia to refer to masturbation. In addition, the worm contained "over sixty" randomisable messages that it would display to users, including "Vote anarchist" and "The FBI is watching YOU". The worm was also programmed to trick users into believing that files were being deleted, though no files were actually erased by the worm.

Origin

Investigators initially believed the worm to have originated in France, but due to the cultural references included within the program, the worm is now thought to have been created by Melbourne-based hackers, the first to be created by an Australian or Australians.

References

ee also

* Father Christmas (computer worm)

External links

* [http://www.cert.org/advisories/CA-1989-04.html CERT advisory]
* [http://agn-www.informatik.uni-hamburg.de/catalog/vms/html/wank_wor.htm Another advisory]
* [http://www.underground-book.com/ Underground. A freely available online book which contains a lot of information about the worm]
* [http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/05/24/1053585748340.html Article that includes information about the worm]
* [http://www.aic.gov.au/conferences/internet/dreyfus.pdf Article by Suelette Dreyfus, "Juvenile Delinquents or International Saboteurs?"]
* [http://snowplow.org/tom/worm/history.html "The history of worm-like programs"]
* [http://www.darkmindz.com/articles/hacking-history-num387.html Hacking History article on DarkMindZ]
* [http://www.aracnet.com/~kea/Papers/Politically%20Motivated%20Computer%20Crime.pdf Hacktivism and Politically Motivated Computer Crime] , written by one of the Digital Equipment Corporation investigators, disputes the WANK worm had any political motivation but was rather a play on the British meaning of the word "wank".