Grapevine

By PAUL GRAY/

QUICK, THE RAID. Everyone knows that the computer industry is fighting against viruses, malicious programs that can infect whole networks and crash them. So it stands to perverse reason that hush-hush agencies like the CIA and NSA are trying to create such bugs as offensive weapons. The latest entrant in this quest is the U.S. Army, which is soliciting bids on a half-million dollar contract to develop tactical virus weapons capable of disabling enemy computers on the battlefield. The proposal has raised eyebrows among the military's hackers. Says one Army computer-security officer: "Many of my colleagues are quite surprised that something of this nature would be put on the streets for research rather than using the expertise internally available."

With reporting by DAVID ELLIS