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Writing Viruses for Fun and Profit

Posted by Hemos on from the insidisous-dependence dept.

JMPrice writes "There's a short article over at zdnet that explores a future synergy between viruses and spam, i.e. international crackdown on spam and open relays makes spammers opt to use infected computers instead as relays, and speculates a relationship between the virus writers and spammers."

7 of 172 comments (clear)

  1. Really? by Bluelive · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Has it really become harder for spammers to remain anonymous ? Anyways, if it was really for spamming purposes the virus would just start open relaying.

  2. On the plus side... by kinnell · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Any spammer using this technique will be entering the realms of cyber-terrorism, and will be liable for a big prison sentence and dedicated criminal investigations. Given that spam is advertising, it probably wouldn't be very hard to track the perpetrators down once the appropriate warrants are issued. I predict that either this report is overblown, or a few spammers will end up getting the buggering they deserve in prison.

    --
    If I seem short sighted, it is because I stand on the shoulders of midgets
  3. What cash flow? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Seriously, how many spammers make enough money to be able to pay virus writers any decent sum for their work?

  4. Re:Classic problem of a mono culture by GreatDrok · · Score: 5, Interesting

    No, a standard can be implemented by people using different code bases. If the standard is faulty then it needs to be fixed and each implementation also needs to be fixed to deal with the problem. However, the vast majority of problems with standards come from there being a single code base. For example, SSH. There is code based on the original SSH implementation and code based on OpenSSH. Frequently there is a problem with one or the other but not both. Less frequently there is a problem with the standard itself.

    --
    "I have the attention span of a strobe lit goldfish, please get to the point quickly!"
  5. Spammers & Virus Writers are the same anyway by adzoox · · Score: 4, Interesting
    I had written a slashdot story submission not too long ago that was rejected. Here it is:

    Some Spammers=Some Hackers

    Today's court ruling in favor of the ISP Earthlink vs Spam Ring Leader Howard Carmack got me to thinking.

    Are ALL Spammers doing it for a profit? I find that many to most SPAM emails I receive in my inbox have unresolved links. Meaning; you can't "take advantage of the DEALS you are getting". (not that you'd necessarily want to) What would be the purpose of sending out emails such as this in great quantity, and using the man hours, hardware, etc to do it?

    I think it may have to do partially with "the hacker mentality" Not all hackers do things for the common mythical reasons we like to think they do. (Revenge on the corporate world, profit, fame) - they do it because they can and a lot do it because they are mentally obsessed with it.

    This was the attitude of a former colleague of mine that was hacker. He came from a rich family, was very well known in the community, and had a 1000 easier ways to get what he was wanting accomplished. He was obsessed first of all with hacking, second doing it with a Macintosh, and 3rd just because he could.

    I'm not alluding to hackers having a mental problem, nor really comparing hackers to spammers.

    This ruling, just made me think of motivation. Maybe if we can tap the motivation for Spammers, then maybe we can come up with the solution.

    --
    Yell & scream & rant & rave... it's no use... you need a shaaaave ~ Bugs Bunny
  6. Re:The problem by Monoman · · Score: 4, Interesting

    You are on to what I have been saying for years.

    If my company pays another company to advertise my product and or services and they use illegal advertising methods, then shouldn't my company be punished also?

    Does it matter if my company knew about the advertising methods that would be used? I don't know anyone that would hire an advertising company without knowing what service was being provided.

    --
    Keep the Classic Slashdot.
  7. The inplications go WAY beyond that by rutledjw · · Score: 5, Interesting
    SPAMMERS right now are crowing that "we're not doing anything illegal". Aside from using another companies computers/bandwidth/resources without permission and selling products of dubious value - they're right. But all of that is subjective WRT legality.

    Now, if they're using hacked computers, they're on the wrong side of the law. Period. We're not talking civil damages any longer. The discussion point is how long they'll be in "Federal pound-me-in-the-ass Prison".

    This is the dumbest idea from a spammers viewpoint I've ever read. However, I'm not under the impression many of these guys are intelligent. The only reason they've been able to defeat filters and other mechanisms is either stupid admins or half-hearted implementations.

    I personally hope they do it! I'd love to see a few spend some time in our lovely Federal Corrections Facilities.

    --

    Computer Science is Applied Philosophy