What Kind Of Person Writes A Virus Or Worm Anyway?

[arwalden]

Why? What's the point? Where's the thrill? I don't get it.

I've often wondered if there's a secret back-room at the Symantec/Norton Labs and at the McAffee Complex where programmers come up with new viruses to release into the wild... then the VERY NEXT DAY they (and ONLY they) have the "fix" to this new virus that was just "discovered".

How convenient!

-- Allen

[Blue_Chill]

1. No need for conspiracy

Hackers suffer from a odd need to show off their skill. A virus that makes the front page of every paper in the country is a way to brag amongst themselves.

[DBoon]

2. These people have always existed

Before there were computers, they made crank phone calls just for fun, or would flush lit firecrackers down the toilet just to see what happens.

It's called being irresponsible and pushing a prank too far.

[Booberdawg]

3. People who are sickos

Like people who send bombs to people (unibomber)

stalkers
prank callers
hang up phone calls
dirty emails

seems like passive aggressive anger to me

[Bake]

4. I have long suspected the Nortons and McAfees

Kinda like Tony Soprano collecting "protection" money.

Then we find out it was just a "kid" (although legally an adult) and people here want to give him a freakin' medal and blame US for being so stupid as to allow it to happen in the first place!

Sigh.

Bake

[cosmicdot]

7. here's your IE 6.0 update

... and, if they really screw up your PC ... if your're fortunate enough to have the means ... go buy a replacement system ... between new PC equipment ... software licenses (no collateral for owner) and fastfood service nation ... that's pretty much 'the economy' ...

((I've also suspected that the Scaife rightwing of the rightwing party contribute just to keep people p.o.'d nice and good - sending porno stuff to help the End of Times cultists))

Why can't there be some 'fixes' to make it more difficult to pollute?

[Az]

5. There are a number of types

There is the gray hat hacker. These hackers create virie that demonstrate weaknesses in security by showing the public a sampling of what it can do. This is often because the corporations that make the OS's will not fix their problems without insentive. Gates and Co look to bugs and security breeches as the reason the customer will buy the next OS. They see no reason to fix a problem for free today when they can sell a new OS tomorrow.

There is the Script Kiddie. These are people like the poor slob that got arrested the other day. They don't create the initial virus. Instead they get ahold of a known virus and tinker with it to learn about it. They then release it back into the wild. Their reason stems from a combination of curiousity and teen angst.

Black Hats are the least common. These people are very knowledgable and angry. They come up with the exploits or figure new ways to twist older ones. They are rarer than most people think.

The professional hacker. These may or may not exist. Without virie certain companies would go out of business. Thus they need a steady reminder to the people to buy their product.

The merry prankster. This is the coder that creates a virus on a lark. They do not always expect it to travel far. Typically it is aimed are someone nearby. But with the nature of the net today these can sometimes go wild and travel around the world in a blink of an eye. The payloads of these are seldom destructive

The scholar or researcher. These are white hats that create virie in an attempt to test weaknesses in the system. They take measures to make sure the virus does not escape but they are not always succesful. Some grey hats fancy themself thus.

Espionage. It is a factor. As the net makes the world smaller the politics on the otherside of the planet comes closer. Nothing gets attention like shutting down the net.

[arwalden]

6. "Script Kiddies" describes the Virus Creators I've Always Imagined

... thanks for the VERY informative post.

-- Allen

[rabid_nerd]

8. I've been a few of those...

Typically a script kiddie, but before internet was an "always-on" thing (dial up days)..

I'd do stupid stuff like writing self-repairing viruses... That is, I got a virus that did something in the registry so I'd tinker with it to erase what it did. But I disabled the viral nature of it and sent it as a vaccine to forward to people who sent you the original (but manually)...

I do have copies of old virii here and there that I like to study. But I've never let one go. Besides, most are old vbs and javascript tricks.

As far as hacking, my buddy and I used to have hack wars. I'd usually win and shut his computer down. Sometimes during a long download, lol. We were neighbors and I heard him scream - hehehe...

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

9. A tech employee of a large corporation trying to sell product

and an activist trying to force the product onto the market or expose the practice.

[Xithras]

10. I wrote one in college

Back in the days before the Internet and CD-ROMS were a big deal, most viruses were transferred by floppy disk. During the long boring summer following my second year, I wrote a boot sector virus that had two parts.

1) It installed itself on your hard drive, and then tried to propagate to any network accessible computers (if they had an IPX implementation) or floppy disks that were connected to or inserted into the infected PC.

2) On the 31st day of every month that had one, the virus would reverse the capitalization of every character sent to the screen...assuming that the user was working with ASCII DOS applications. If they were using Windows 3.1, it replaced the old Windows "chime.wav" with a fart sound for a day.

Why did I write it? Mostly to see if I could do it, partly because I was a computer geek with no social life who found Beavis and Butthead entertaining (mentally, that's just where I was at the time), and a little bit because there's a certain thrill that goes along with "getting away" with something.

Luckily, I've grown up a bit ;)

[Kellanved]

11. Many viruses are never get released into the 'wild'

There are perfectly good reasons to write one; for example the "proof of concept" - it's the undenieable proof that a vulnerability exists and can be exploited.
The Mult-Platform worms etc. are usually escaped proofs...

[NYYFan]

12. According to the mother of the teen caught last week- anyone

with basic knowledge of a computer, this in an interview on Today yesterday am.

I have more than basic knowledge of a computer- and I can't write one, so I don't know what she's talking about.

I guess ppl that have malicious intent or nothing better to do.

[Kat45]

13. An asshole with too much time on his hands?

At least that's my opinion of virus-writers, hackers, etc.

[mvd]

15. You said it

Or you could just say, a criminal.

[bif]

14. A PC user

Mac users are too smart to waste their time writing viruses.