Interview with Tornado
[late 1998]
[reproduced (with permission) from the Feathered Serpents Website]
[Check their site for possible updates]
[http://sourceofkaos.com/homes/owl]

How did you chose your handle?

Back in the beginning of the 90's, I thought the name "TorNado" was great for me, as it's something you can relate to the real world, and yet something very destructive.

Do you fit the geeky virus writer stereotype?

Nooooo. I look pretty normal, but people who REALLY know me tell me that I'm really strange, because I like to say and do totally insane things (I'm a true DOMAIN freak).

What religious beliefs do you hold?

Religion really confuses me, but I do believe in the existence of something greater.

How did you find out about computers?

I recieved my first SX Spectrum when I was 12, then later, a Commodore 64, and when I was 16, my first IBM PC (286, 2MB memory, and a 120MB HDD).

How did you discover computer viruses?

In 1989 I read some articles in a computer magazine, concerning a post office that was infected by the virus Friday the 13th, along with some other viruses which were "in the wild" at the time. I was interested.

Why did you start writing viruses?

Well, me and Darkman were in the same class (Computer Science) and we started to spend a lot of time in IRC (Unix style), and then suddenly he became a member of VLAD, and that was my way into the scene.

How do you name your viruses?

That depends. But I can give an example: When Yitzhak-Rabin was killed, I thought that would be a perfect name for my next virus, which by the way was spread widely in Denmark and around in Europe, and in lots of US universities (none of which were done by me, I just wrote the virus). One of the big Internet providers in Denmark called Datafellows for help, because it was all over their site.

Which programming languages have you been fluent in?

Pascal, C++, and Visual Basic.

How do you like to lay out your source code?

Well, I like to make it understandable for other people, like making a lot of comments, remarks and stuff like that. I do this so that, hopefully, newbies can learn from them, or at least grab some ideas.

What are your thoughts on destructive code?

If you had asked me that question 2 years ago, I would have said "I really don't give a shit if it's destructive or not". But today, I really don't see any beauty in destructive code - because it normally gets a virus caught quickly. It's more interesting to see a peice of code that can integrate into an OS without being noticed.

How has your virus writing impacted your 'real life'?

I would say it hasn't impacted much, but true friends that know of my interaction with viruess would say that it has had a big impact on me, because I have spent so much time with virus writing. But it's nothing I go around and tell to everybody, because most people have strange ideas about virus writers.

Which AV software do you use yourself?

AVP. It's the perfect AV tool.

What are your thoughts about those who create viruses in non-ASM languages?

Darkman once made a Pascal virus! What can I say? Assembly is the only language where one can code a tight and well optimized virus, there is nothing more to say.

Do others in your personal life know that you write viruses?

Only 2 of my best friends know, and they are not family. Once I did try to give my Uncle a hint (he is a Tandem programmer), but I don't think he got my hint. Or, well, I don't know, we never talked about it anyway.

Your virus infection hits a hospital and kills someone... are you depressed?

Yes, I would be depressed.

Your thoughts on viruses and the law.

Break the law. Nobody can enforce it anyway.

What virus technologies interest you the most?

Usually the ones I am busy creating :)

Your advice to those just beginning.

Go find a good assembly language book, and READ it twice. Then go through all of the virus magazines which are out and can be found on the Internet. In my opinion, that's the best way to start out.

What you think lies in the future of virus coding?

We'll have to find out and explore that one ourselves.

Describe the perfect virus.

It doesn't exist.