BKADOLP1.RVW  931222

Ace Books
360 Park Avenue South
New York, NY  10010
"The Adolescence of P-1", Ryan, 1977

I still like this one the best.  While Ryan is not very good with plotting, his
characters, including P-1, are very sympathetic.  His dialogue is witty,
realistic and engaging.  His action is quirky and amusing.

P-1 is not, strictly speaking, a virus.  P-1 is a Shoch and Hupp type of worm;
a segmented program running on a number of computers.  Initially a utility
program to help steal time on multiple systems, P-1 mutates into a living
artificial intelligence.

In order to avoid detection, P-1 increases the efficiency of programming,
storage and communications of the systems that are subverted.  In this way the
users do not see excessive processing times, storage allocations or line
charges.  P-1 thus anticipates Fred Cohen's proposal of a compression virus and
other beneficial viral programs.

The mechanics of security-breaking are not explained and, in any case, would
only be applicable to IBM 360 series.  The concepts, however, are sound.  In
one instance, the target system is alert and watching for intrusion.  The
solution is classic.  P-1 has subverted IBM, so when a new system disk is
requested, a trojan is tagged on to it.  Trusted systems and all that.

I thoroughly recommend it.  Took me ages to do this review, since I kept
getting caught up in it and practically reread the whole book.

copyright Robert M. Slade, 1993   BKADOLP1.RVW  931222
 
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