...

interview with jackie

by alcopaul

tell the readers somethin' bout yourself...

well, first of all, hi there people! actually i'm 2x years old and enjoy my life in all ranges. i like to spend time with my soulmate (god bless you babie), exploring my mind, listening and writing music, watching the stars at night, whatever...just having a good time. right now it seems to be trendy if you are a geek/nerd whatever it is called but i don't give a fuck and i don't want to waste my life with 24h of computer shit all day long. another story, i used to play bass in a metal band, but due lack of time we split (do we?)...i'm hoping to find a new band to play with soon. (greeties fly out to the odium tribe and all diehard fans. xD=)

to my virtual life, i'm kinda oldschool and i learned a lot by the 'hard way' ie: to do researching on my own and not getting everything plugged into my ass. so to all newbies and all the people who pretend that they are more, don't ask if it's not worth, the answers are already there...just learn to search first.

what made you decide to use your current handle?

i always wanted to have a simple nick, like jackie and not that evil hax0r style ones.

as far as i know, you mostly do some macro stuffs? how long have you been creating macro viruses?

i've been into this since '97, but all my creations from that time were never released because they weren't worth to release at all so i learned how to program first. my buddy from italy, slage, was the first one who discovered and introduced me and my work to the so called 'scene'.

do you know any other languages besides vb/vbs/vba?

yeah. i'm capable of programming in a few languages like basic, pascal, etc and right now i'm enjoying c# and all that new .net stuff, which actually roqs. xD= i able to do stuff in other languages too, but i think it's not worth to count them here, because i think it doesn't matter what language you use when you have realized what programming is all about. for me programming is more than knowing the syntax or whatever, it's more about knowing how to solve problems and logical stuff, after that, learning a new language shouldn't be that hard.

when did you decide to code viruses? why?

i think it was '97. my closest friend and me decided to start to program when he got a pc. we started to search the net for 'underground' stuff. he, now member of the famous cracking group core, started cracking and i went on with virus related stuff. greets fly out to him at this point.

hmm, call me stupid but actually i can't remember why i started writing viruses and what my motivations were, but i think i just did it because i found it interesting. i hope you didn't expect that 'i got infected by' story. j/k. xD=

virus groups in which you belong?

during the years i've been part of a few groups like linezer0, metaphase and matrix. right now i'm part of tantrum, which is not 'yet another lame pretend to write viruses'-group, it's more the name of a joined project. i'm doing this with my favourite coder anti state tortoise. keep your eyes open for more puffs from our laboratories soon.

being part of a group is a fine thing, but the problem is that a lot of newbies think they are better if they can tag themself with a group name and so the so called 'groups' pop up like mushrooms in the woods. it's all the time 'join, join, join!!!' and actally they just produce old or lack copy/paste stuff. as a result, those ppl will never establish themselves if they won't get off this train. actually this happens in all sectors of computer 'underground' lately. :/ prolly it seems to be kewl to tell your buddies that you are in an 'evil virus group'.

there are a some good groups around, try to get yourself further and join them. there is no need to set up a new group anyway. join somewhere or stay alone. you and your environment will feel better. believe me.

tell us somethin about your creations and their importance to you...

i've written a few pieces of code and a lot of stuff that has never been before, because in my eyes, writing viruses is more about writing new and fresh stuff that matters and discovering new technics and new aspects than writing a virus that has nothing new and has been done a thousand times before...like all this macro, vbs, batch, win32 stuff that has been done a thousand times before, but obviosly, just for the fake fame, let's do another one. :/ just take a look on the hll sector, it's mainly boring shit. :/

a lot of people just do it for the description on an av site, i mean, it makes me sad to see that there are 100 versions of w97m.marker (hi there spo0ky, where ever you are at!) that are just been copy/paste shit.

along the years i've written a few creations like the first macro virus for visio, the first 'resisdent' project virus, the first macro that is able to update itself via the internet, the first jscript virus, the first 'resisdent' vbscript virus, the first poly engine for vbscript/jscript, et cetera, et cetera. as you can see, i'm trying to push the whole thing a bit further.

i'm getting bored of writing viruses lately so i'm mainly writing tutorials to introduce new stuff to the mass and giving a helping hand to anyone who is interested in learning.

are they in the wild?

i dunno and i don't give a fuck. as i said before, i'm writing viruses to show that kewl new stuff can be done and not to get in the wild. xD=

malware technique that you channel your interest into?

mainly i'm up to discover new technics to get myself more knowledge and possiblities to solve the problems i'm facing everyday. a dear friend of mine and hll coder from the past, arzy, is introducing me to the security related topics a bit like exploits and similar stuff. (thanks arzy for wasting your time with me. xD=) besides malware, i'm related into some cracking, but that's another story.

brand of pc, specs and OS..

i have a few boxes, no clue what brand they are and right now there is just a win2000 box that is set up and i'm working with. my basic setup consist of winamp for the music, i need music, hehe, xD= the compilers i'm working with, some debuggers like sice, smartcheck, etc and basics like irc and mail client, burning software, etc. actually i'm wondering what this hype about bluescreens is about. for me everything that i use works fine. i think it mainly about knowing how to use an os. xD=

what is your vision about the future of macro viruses?

i think the future will be dark, because there is a heavy lack of coders that bring new stuff lately, like i said before, it's mainly boring copy/paste shit so that people can call themself a virus writer. writing a macro bug is easy shit. finding new tech is nice...do it! xD=

there are a lot of new things that can be discovered like the .net stuff, greeties fly out to gigabyte and benny. i really hope that people will get it and stop doing it for being kewl and start doing it to bring new fresh stuff.

do you code while you're listening to music? tell us something about your musical preferences...

yeah, i love music. xD= i've grown up with a lot of punk stuff while being skateboarding for a few years, heh, a lot past linezer0 members were skaters. xD= then i started to enjoy metal stuff a lot. my favourite record is 'roots' by sepultura and i'm proud to own a limited edition of that awesome record. yes, there are people who still buy records. xD=

lately i've been into lo-fi and ambient stuff to chill a bit. actually the music that you can hear in the charts makes me sick, because it's all about the money and mainly the so called 'artists' don't make their music themselves. it's not about being an artist, it's more about being an object that can be sold. you pay a lot and get nothing at all. :/ just hot air and people made out of plastic.

to name a few bands: sepultura, machine head, fear factory, cold, sevendust, soulfly, pantera, faith no more, life of agony, snot, type o negative, incubus, black sabbath, rykers, soundgarden, kruder&dorfmeister, tosca, bazoo banjou, thievery corperation, waldeck, jestofunk, etc etc...this list would get endless.

by the way, there's some kick ass band called blind hate experiment, it's some local band from the usa, i dunno if you can download their stuff, i got some and it's the best stuff i've heard in the last months. support them!

what can you tell about some coders who rip whole source codes, just changing the strings and claiming them as their own?

just one word: die! well, i've found out that even my stuff has been copied a few times and i think it's just lame...not more. it's stealing. a lot of people just copy others work to impress their buddies. those people do fine until someone realizes what they are doing. people are driven by fake

fame.

lately, a lot of output old crap too, even if it's not copied. people don't seem to mind if something has been allready done, just to 'code' another 'virus'. :/

creativity or mastery? why?

actually i dunno if i get this question right, but i think being creative is the main fact of writing viruses besides the programming fact. when you are creative, you can imagine new stuff and if you got the skills, you can realize it to code. writing uncreative code, is just repeating the stories that have already been told a thousand times. for my part, something that isn't creative, isn't worth to code or release at all. public service announcement: stop writing useless code.

two heads are better than one, d'ya disagree? ... what do you think about tandems in virus-writing?

yeah, i agree. antistate and me have been talking about a joined project for ages now, actually since we know each other and finally we are doing some stuff. right now, anti is working on a second part of my latest tutorial. it will surely rock. for my part, i already have some new stuff for all y'all in my pocket. xD= i'd love to have it like when i started back in the days. the hll coders have worked together and pushed each other to new grounds. these days there's nothing equal to these let's call it 'competition times'.

file infectors, internet worms, backdoors or trojan horse?

heh, that's a hard one. basically i like it more the old way, a virus should infect files. xD= but on the other hand i like the idea of w32/mtx to combine all this stuff.

what do you think of destructive payloads (i.e. ala-CIH >payload in macros, :D)?

another hard one just following, well, basically i think destructive payloads are for kiddies. a destrutive virus wants to be noticed, the writer prolly wants fame by a description on an av page or smth like this. just think about the fact that writing code that deletes a file for example is cheap. on the other hand, writing a graphical payload, like spanska wrote for vecna's hybris (hi there spanska, i keep starring at your spiral for hours all the time.) is so much more sophisticated. heh, arzy once got the idea about manipulating the people with subliminal messages, that one is phunny too. to come to a point, i'm writing viruses to introduce new technics and not to give the infected people a hard time.

i don't use antivirus coz i believe that its not worth my money.... do you use an antivirus software? what? why?

i used to use avp for myself just to see if my creations are being scanned and my brothers norton to test my 'let's-fool-nortons-suppa-dubba-leet-scanning -all' ideas with the bloodhound heuristics. good software is all the money worth, because like you and me and everyone else needs to live from the money he earns but that's truely another story. xD=

favorite malware not written by you?

i think i don't have a favourite one, but i'm quite impressed by creations like hybris, mtx, fabie, babylon, marburg, winux, cats, class, etc

coders that you respect? why?

basically i'm respecting everyone who comes up with new stuff (yeah, i know that i'm saying this the 10 time), but i'm sure you want to have some names: i respect people like anti state, b0z0, mandragore, vecna, zombie, spanska, griyo, starzero, benny, spo0ky, gigabyte, vic, 1nternal, jacky qwerty, raid, rajaat, kd, buz, nucleii, evul, lys, error, asmodeus, darkman, t2000 and all the other kick-ass guys.

coders that you disrespect :)? why?

i disrespect anyone who rips code without giving any credits and people who does actions contra-vx like forking logs to cops, purging channels, etc. we should stand as one and not throwing stones at each other. it doesn't bring us any further. even, i can't stand copycats. :/

what certain emotions do you feel when you code viruses?

heh, i feel happy if some of my strange ideas work out and i feel pissed when something doesn't work the way i want it to. xD= that's all.

do you use hard drugs while you're coding? what?

i use drugs, but that's a private story and this here is not the right place to talk about, don't need to act kewl or whatever but to give my experiences to you: coding under narcotics is very hard for me, because when i'm writing one line of code i forget why i wrote it and what i wanted to do. drug free coding! xD=

favourite brand of cigarrettes? beer?

i'm rolling cigarettes by myself and i'm smoking van nelle tabacco. my favourite papers are ocb premium, best papers ever done, if you care. xD= anyone who's involved, try k2. xD=

drinkingwise i enjoy 'villacher' or 'stiegl' which are both local beer sorts, mr b0z0 knows what i'm talking about, so if you want to have a really good beer, come here and drink some with me, you'll see. xD= well, i won't mind some cold becks or erdinger too. xD=

for harder stuff, i like to drink absolute vodka, it rocks. or some special offered drink in my favourite bar. (wirue-cult!)

you're kinda wholesome with respect to your viruses... i haven't seen a work from you which is sex-influenced... what do you think about mixing sex and virus-writing?

heh, good one. well, i don't want to get to private, but i got a fine sexual life and so i'm kinda well balanced and mixing sex with virus writing wouldn't make any sense to me because it's a different pair of shoes. anyway, i'm getting sick about the fact that the internet is just spammed by porn that no one needs except a few kiddies and some pervert guys. :/ sex, drugs, viruses & rock'n'roll!

what do you think about mixing virus-writing and activism? :)

well, i think it's kewl to give the payload of a virus a message, but the message must have a message if you can follow me. xD= anyway, i can't judge what's good and what's bad, just my 2 cents.

we're both vb coders. and there are also vb coders in the scene.. and vicodinES is also a vb coder... what do you think of forming a "free vicodines" group? :)

heh, we've had a 'free vic' campaign soon after the melissa incident, but i think vic was sentenced now, so there's no need to make a new group anyway. the only thing we could do, is set up a fund and get some money to pay his fine. xD= (vic: we are with you where ever you are. xD=)

what do you think about the P2P spreading used by some viruses?

i think it's a new way to spread and i actually enjoy seeing all those warez and pron kiddies getting infected because they downloaded/clicked on a file called 'hot_teen_luv.jpg.exe' or smth like this. p2p caused a lot of media coverage, because now every idiot can download everything and so the cops and all the stuff are trying to destroy systems that worked fine for years without any problems. actually, i don't like p2p at all. i put some lines about p2p spreading in some tut and now they are getting itw. xD= i never bothered writing a p2p spreading virus, but giving some ideas in my tuts, that's all.

to get a bit offtopic, it would be a kewl idea to make a p2p software to spread tutorials, codes and such stuff. spreading knowledge. xD=

what do you think bout the prevalent use of mirc among virus writers?

hmm, i don't care about the software you use. if you are happy with it, it's fine. i personally use klient for irc communications. ehm, what's this question for? xD=

do you have a girlfriend? did you name a virus after her? what did she feel?

yeah, i have one, for some years now and still happy. xD= (hey babie xD=). no, i didn't name a virus after her, but i'm quite often dedicating my work to her because it consumes a lot of time sometimes, time i could better spend with her...i should really think about this. xD= well, i think she feels comfortable when she reads here name somewhere in my stuff. xD=

when do you think will virus writing be socially acceptable? do you envision virus writers wearing some ties, go to offices, do virus writing and earn some big bucks?

well, i dunno. in most peoples eyes, viruses are destructive, even if most of the viruses are just spreading and saying hello sometimes, not more. but as long as lamers do destructive code, narrow minded people care for the bad image of virus writers and other computer underground related topics, like this idiot of av guy, i forgot the name, (ask pax for it, he was at the conference where he spoke) who said that virus writers are poor idiots that don't have a real life and nothing, the bad image will stay. that's just narrow minded. if you could see me in real life, you'd more expect that i'm a metal head than a guy that does programming, writes viruses or spends time in front of a computer. i even don't get it why people get isolated by their computers...just all get a life, you'll see it's good. xD=

actually i have to wear ties sometimes too. xD= but it kinda looks weird because of my long beard and all the stuff i wear, like chains etc. xD=

i know a few virus writers who got a kewl job and earn a lot of money. xD=

when do you think will virus writing become dead?

hmm, i think when users will stop to click on everything that has an icon.

what advice can you give the newbies that want to follow your steps?

first of all, forget about the idea that anyone will give you an answer when you are asking. it's time to realize that you need to research and you need to learn. be sure that you can find answers for about 99,9% of all your questions in various tutorials, white papers, ebooks, etc. like urgo once said, don't ask, the answers are already there. second, go out there and get your expiriences, find your favourite language or compiler. find your way and don't believe everything that you are told. i remember the days when i was kicked out of #virus for various reasons like saying nothing, saying anything, being new, etc (greeties go out to my favourite kickers reptile and profane. xD=) like every process, writing viruses takes time, time for researching, time for findind ideas, time to be creative. xD=

next, don't try to copy someone, or rip someone else code or ideas, that's lame. just think about the fact that you won't like your work being ripped too.

be friendly and others will be friendly too, well, in most cases. xD= at least if you don't pretend someone else that you actually are, ie: some people pretend that they are leet virus coders, you'll be accepted.

virus writing was once more than just code, it was a bunch of friends.

favourite movie?

phew, i got a few. prolly my favs are american beauty, fear and loathing in las vegas, thursday, pulp fiction, snatch, etc...well...lord of the rings was fine to except all the stuff that was in the book and not in the film and the other way round. true fans of tolkien will know what i mean. heh, i enjoy futurama too, and some of mtv's comic series like daria.

favourite food?

pizza and mexican stuff. heh, i enjoy cooking too....kiss the cook. xD=

favourite activity?

i don't touch myself, i just smoke a lot. xD= anyway, i enjoy music...playing guitar or listening to music is one of my favourite activities. heh, and nothing compares to a clear night, sitting at the roof with a good jazz cigarette, hearing nice ambient music in the background and watching the stars and counting meteors with my girlie. actually i enjoy having a good time with kewl souls. xD=

my real favourite activity is having no stress and a fine time, no matter what i do.

how can you be reached?

try to catch me around on irc @ #virus, but i'm hardly on irc. you better check my page for new stuff @ http://www.coderz.net/jackie/ but the best way is to send me an email to jackie@coderz.net. xD= to all the people that know me in real life, feel free to come over and have a good time. xD=

this page is yours... greets and other things to add...

first of all kisses & greeties to my girlie, luv ya babie. xD= i'd like to thank you for giving me a good time while answering all your interesting questions.

all my greets, respect and love fly out in no special order to: heXc, antistate, arzy, flitnik, lyskovick, b0z0, mandragore, darkman, slagehammer, lou, fabie, chebbie, nakolium, xaitax, fletcher & wife, gunjoe & chrisi, nts, vecna, t2000 (rip bro), pzest, griyo, benny, ulie, gigabyte, knowdeth, nucleii, evul, virtual life, mr sandman, vb, error, nex, spanska, mgl, alphee, marpheus, fellohrenmuetze, fusher, jess, 1nternal, vic, opic, spo0ky, raid, lord natas, lord julus, bumblebee, pax & wife, mr fog:u, descent, tortie, martin, shadseek, strcat, my it band(christian & schedie), ultras, acidbytes, joda, sui, raid, rajaat, sepp, shortie, morphine, necro, freakazoid, pietro pizzi, gine, guru, jones & hons @ atdw, sabrina & exceed, the odium tribe, the c(haos)c(afe) locals and all the other kewl souls i met while travelling thru time...

sorry if i forgot anyone, i got a bad memory sometimes. xD=

i got a nice quote by carl sandberg for all y'all: 'sometime they'll give a war and nobody will come.'...think about this people.

thanks a lot..

no problem at all, this one was a fine interview with interesting questions. xD=