VCM1: Interview to Dr. Rave
by VirusBuster
- How old are you? Where do you come from?
I am over 20 years old and from Europe.
- Why did you start collecting viruses?
I had some viruses on a CD, I got infected and I was interested to have more of them, because they had an "underground touch" - I liked to have something "prohibited/dangerous" to collect. So, I started to collect viruses instead of stamps and other things.
- For how long have you been collecting viruses?
About 6 years.
- Did you ever stop trading viruses and continued after a time? If yes, for how long were you inactive?, why did you stop?, why did you decide to continue?
Yes, I stopped trading viruses when I was fooled by some trader. I think I was inactive for 1 year or so; dunno anymore exactly. But I still continued to collect viruses when I had time. I decided to continue when I had some more time and when I saw that there where enough new small traders with new stuff for me, in order that I would again be one of the big traders in a short period of time. Butt his time I was a bit smarter and tried to avoid to get fooled again. Also I stopped to provide weekly collections of viruses for free download of other traders etc. I am again retired, this time because I have not enough time for that. Maybe in some years I will trade again, maybe I will never trade again like I did in past.
- What are your virus statistics actually? (AVP/F-Prot/... unique/total)
I do not tell actual statistics, as I am retired since over a half year. I guess that it was around 40.000 AVP uniques and around 100.000 in total.
- What antivirus do you usually use for making logs? Do you use any other antivirus from time to time? If yes, what are them?
I used AVP, F-Prot and McAfee.
- Do the people near you (parents, friends, ...) know you collect viruses?
Yes, they know.
- Do you consider necessary to avoid telling people you collect viruses? If yes, why?
Depends. Some people are quite stupid, and if they would hear about it, they would spread around that I am a terrorist just because I collect them. Other peoples that knows me better and are more intelligent knows that what I do is harmless, so it is not necessary that I avoid it to them.
- Do you avoid trading with any collector? If yes, who and what are the reasons?
No, but there were traders with who I prefered to trade, because I know them since long time and because they have good reputation (always fair trades, good samples, etc.).
- Is there any virus collector that you admire for any reason? If yes, who and what are the reasons to admire him?
I admire VirusBuster, because he is the "King" of the vX scene and he helps other traders providing tools, links and news related to VX.
- Did you ever work for an antivirus company?
No comment...
- Did you ever trade with an antivirus company or an antivirus researcher?
No comment...
- Do you keep stuff that you can not/do not want to trade?
No comment...
- Did you ever exchange your complete virus collection with other collector?
No comment...
- In your opinion, what is the best and what is the worst antivirus scanner? Why?
The best scanner is in my opinion KAV, because they are usually the first in providing new AV techniques, they have a high detection ratio and they use various names for each variant and easy-read names for naming viruses.
The worst antivirus scanner is in my opinion Sophos, because they do not have automatic updates, not very high detection rates and no good heuristic.
- What is the program you use to process logs?
VS2000GUI of VirusBuster.
- What is the program you use to rename files?
VS2000GUI of VirusBuster.
- What is the program you use to sort your collection?
VS2000GUI of VirusBuster and sometimes if VS2000GUI is currently working I use CollectionMaker.
- Do you check for fake viruses? If yes, what is the program you use for doing that?
VS2000GUI of VirusBuster or various antiviruses as pre-check. I also use some other "secret" tools ;-)
- Do you use any additional program for doing any virus collecting task? If yes, what are those programs and what they do?
All I need is already contained into VS2000GUI of VirusBuster. Some other tools I use does check for fakes/garbage or deleting empty directories (what also VS2000GUI can do).
- How is your collection sorted and stored? Do you keep viruses compressed or uncompressed? What is the directory structure?
My collection is stored on Hard Disk. Old samples are compressed in ZIP files, the new samples are uncompressed (in order to delete the dupes before compressing them). Samples are stored by AVP names (VS2000GUI -> CollectionMakerStyle).
- Do you make backups of your collection? If yes, How often and what is the media you use to make backups?
Yes, I did in past backups every year (that is not often enough, as I had to discover many times :-/ ), on CDs or on a second Hard Disk.
- Did you used to use VS2000 package tools before it became viriiware? If yes, what is your opinion about the change from freeware to viriiware?, Did you continue using VS2000 package tools after the change?
Yes, I used it also before. The change is a good idea; nowadays there is nothing you can get for free i fit is good - if you want quality, you have to give something away. Yes, I continued to use the tools after the change.
- What is your opinion about the viriiware?
Good idea. I was a bit hard to understand at the beginning of the change, but after a while I understood that it was a good decision taken by the author.
- Your greetings, if any, go here:
I want to greet all VXers, especially (in alphabetical order): m0n30, PanoiX, Perikles, SPTH, TRNEY, VirusBuster, VirusP and all the others who traded with me during the last years.
