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."

Comments

Slashdot?

[October_30th]

no social life, hiding in their basement is not accurate

How about running a similar investigation on /. folk?

One word to sum up the psychology of virus writers

[Faust7]

"Mua ha ha."

Two quick questions...

[sczimme]

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!"

:-)