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The Psychology of Virus Writers
securitas writes "BBC Technology reports on the psychology of virus writers and the work of security researcher Sarah Gordon, who has been studying this area for 20 years. ''The stereotype that virus writers are all young teenage boys with no social life, hiding in their basement is not accurate,' she said. In contrast, she said, most virus creators are typical for their age, are on good terms with friends and family and are often contributors to their local community.' The story is an interesting contrast to a previous BBC report about why people write viruses."
How about running a similar investigation on /. folk?
The owls are not what they seem
"Mua ha ha."
The coolest voice ever.
The article says Ms. Gordon has been studying this for 20 years. I think she is the one that needs to have a social life.
Chaos will always win out over order because chaos is more organized
It's true, I'm on the second floor not in the basement.
-Tim Louden
If I had some mod points, you'd get Insightful easy.
(start rant)
Fact is, people, most users are idiots. People run attachments and expect geeks to fix it, all the time blaming someone else for their stupidity.. Seriously, you will not believe the number of times I have been called over by a computer illiterate person, asking whether the Windows prompt boxes on their screens are real (it's really the web page ads that masquerade as prompt boxes). I wish there was some kind of mandatory license to use the Internet; if you know what the hell you're doing, fine, you get to use the internet with no restrictions. But if you fail, a Special Ops Geek Force will invade your home, and lockdown your computers (e.g. firewall, popup blockers, antivirus, etc, that all work automatically). And maybe we can have some fun educating some chicks about computers.
And if they really were geeky enough to be virus writers, wouldn't a woman stand out like a sore thumb?
And if they really were geeky enough to be virus writers, wouldn't a woman stand out like a sore thumb?
/.
Not really, I think there might be one registered with
But have YOU ever seen her?
Do not meddle in the affairs of geeks for they are subtle and quick to anger
then you'll be pleased to know that it's required at the public school i go to.
I think ethics should be in the school curriculum... ...without reference to religion
where do you think the ideas behind ethics came from? those self-centered people? just a thought
Anyway, I'm gonna go hang out in the backyard of my white Protestant family's backyard and talk about golf while barbecuing.
1) Your backyard has a backyard? Cool!
2) Golf while barbecuing? Do you have a grill hitched to the back of the golf cart? 'Cause that would be neat, but the greenskeeper might get mad. Oh, you meant ((talk about golf) while barbecuing), not (talk about (golf while barbecuing)). Gotcha.
Bet you thought these would be at least somewhat relevant questions about stereotypes. In the words of Dark Helmet: "Fooled you!"
I want to drag this out as long as possible. Bring me my protractor.
That pal you refered to was nick-named "Dark Avenger". I think he quit communicating with Ms. Gordon when she became Mrs. Gordon.
Sir Arthur C. Clarke once said that the definition of the word "pseudointellectual" is 'someone who would use that word'.
Wow, a spelling Nazi with a sense of humour.