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Accused Zotob Worm Author Says Money Was Motive
An anonymous reader writes "Washingtonpost.com has an excerpt of an online interview with "Diabl0", the 18-year-old that Moroccan authorities arrested on suspicion of writing the Zotob and Mytob worms, as well as the Rbot trojan. In the back-and-forth, Diabl0 says his worms "spread only for money" and hints that the motive was receiving commissions from installing spyware on infected computers."
Money.
"Diabl0 says his worms "spread only for money" and hints that the motive was receiving commissions from installing spyware on infected computers."
Because he's stealing THEIR business model! =)
There's nothing Intelligent about Intelligent Design.
...the 18-year-old Moroccan authorities...
GAWD! I must be getting old cause I can remember when "authorities" used to be older than 18.
Bet this
For a minute there I thought he was a real asshole.
My Greatest Heist - Muisc partly inspired by the unbeatable Qwantz
Clearly we must ban this "money" immediately if it encourages criminal behavior.
GCHQ Quantum Insert installed. If only our tongues were made of glass, how much more careful we would be when we speak
42!
Send email from the afterlife! Write your e-will at Dead Man's Switch.
There are companies that makes huge amounts of money from installing redirection software on computers, for example 180 Networks. The software effectively makes online purchases appear to originate from 180 Networks, therefore if a user goes to for example Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble, or Dell, or anybody that pays referral commissions to buy something, 180 gets sent a commission. Obviously for this to work properly, new commission theft software needs to disable or remove existing commission theft software.
Oh well, what the hell...
un..deux..trois! CRASH
Diab10: wtf :p
Police: j00 r u|\|d3r 4rr35t, m0|\|513ur! :p
Diab10: u c4n't kn0ck? i'11 1053 my d3p05it, 100k 4t th4t d00r! r3ck3d! :(
Police: s0rry m0|\|513ur, w3 s4a11 g0 b4ck 0ut5id3 4nd try 4g4in, 0iu? :)
Diab10: w311, 0k.
Police: <kn0ck kn0ck kn0ck> Diab10: wtf, wh0 r u? :p
Police: <13 p01ic3>
Diab10: g0 4w4y, i'm n07 h0m3 :p
Police: <s4cr3 b13u, 332 g0t 4w4y!> >:(
Diab10: :)
Police: <w4it 4 s3c0nd...>
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
It removes other companies spyware along with the spyware it adds, as far as I know. Some sort of attempt to take out the competition, I guess.
The Braying and Neighing of Barnyard Animals Follows.
Wait until he rats on the people who pay him, then put them all in the same cell.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
Neither. He was from Byzantium...
"A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
No, it's the other way around - Zotob is cleaned by some other worms.
F-Secure has a hi-tech diagram how it works here.
quidquid latine dictum sit altum videtur.
I am soooooo, sick of the politicians and their corruption. I personally don't see any "fix" besides a civil war in the USA to blow the shite out of the corrupted politicians.
How much longer should we sit on our fat @sses and let the big corps have privileges that we as private citizens could only dream of? Why should a corp be allowed to commit a crime and only get fined yet, if a private "citizen" committed the _same_ crime would get jail time?
I personally see nothing wrong with what Diabl0 did. After all, he was looking out for "share holders best interests" to MAKE MONEY, so why shouldn't he be protected just like all the other corps that "just want to make money"?
If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land,
it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy. -James Madison
That's nobody's business but the Turk's
How come this worm can remove Gator, but i can't?
1. Wait till MS announces a new exploit. ......Jail!
2. hack up a virus, release on 'net
3.
100. Porn
just follow the money, sooner or later it leads to a weak point, finding one weak point leads to the next. Next one corrupt official wonders why he's not getting the money and narc's out the one who is; quickly the well oiled machine starts to spasm and jerk as the institutional knowedge is jailed and the peons start make the same mistakes over and over again.
Apocalypse Cancelled, Sorry, No Ticket Refunds
I remember a time not all that long ago when the primary motivation for a kid writing a virus was to see his name in the lights or to learn something about technology. I could never really find fault with that, even though what they were doing was clearly misdirected and destructive. At least they were learning something, and being misdirected and destructive is what all kids do almost as a matter of course.
To read this now is both unsurprising and saddening, like the end of an era. A part of me misses the simple pleasure of a BBS, a modem, and people who had to care enough about technology to visit the same places that I was. Reading this story is where the new age of the Internet really hit home for me, though it's certainly been this way for at least a couple of years. The people who care simply don't have their own home anymore, or if they do I don't know where it is. Now that anyone can get on the Internet and the primary motivation for exploring technology is the cash offered by malevolent advertising, I can only sit and be dismayed at what this has all become.
I guess it's all spilled milk and sour grapes for me, though. And I'm sure those who were around at the very beginning, in the late 70s and through the 80s would look at me as a disrespectful babe in diapers for not showing up until the early 90s and sullying what they'd built just as I look upon this jerk as a harbinger of a new generation that just doesn't care.
Removing Gator is some serious shit, I'm not sure degaussing the harddrive always gets rid of it.
Apocalypse Cancelled, Sorry, No Ticket Refunds
he could have avoided this legal mess.
2 years and no mod points. Join reddit. Because openness is good.
There's a slight typo in the article.
They spelled it moroccan.
"cca" wasn't suppossed to be there.
Tordek, Dwarven Warrior - Juegos de Rol en Argentina
I don't suppose anyone has come up with a benign version of this, that only does the removal? It'd actually be pretty useful to have a tool like that around, yaknow; a quick viral fix for your clogged home network! I can see it being of great help whenever fixing friends' systems, eliminate some of the potential problems with a quick infection, how poetically perfect!
I remember sigs. Oh, a simpler time!
Well said. The shite the corps are getting away with has really been "pushing the bar" for a long time. It was all OK as long as everyone had their day time TV. But now that TV content sucks (no good Star Trek shows), people are starting to notice how screwed up the situation is. :)
Either give us good TV, dammit, or else.
Traditionally, their main purpose is to annoy Europe or attack it with elephants or something - nowadays, it is computer viruses. I think I prefer elephants...
Oh well, what the hell...
I'm a moroccan national and I can tell you that prospects are grim for the youth over there. They have been for quite some time and things just aren't getting better.
While this Diabl0 guy was only 18, there is no shortage of university graduates who, after 4+ years of studying, find out that there is no such thing as a job market for them.
The most resourceful and those with affulent families escape to europe and the U.S while those of more modest origins or stronger ties to their country get bitter and are forced to take up any crappy job they can find.
It is inevitable that more cyber-criminals will emerge in Morocco. Cybercafes are cheap and those unemployed folks have plenty of time to devise moneymaking schemes.
Oh, i'm one of those who escaped. Every summer I return, I look and I despair.
Corps here in the USA are constantly allowed to "push the bar" as far as they can
Beyond which, they're acting illegally.
And it's up to state and federal legislatures to redefine what is and is not legal for companies to do. Recent legislation like Sarbanes-Oxley places enormously more scrutiny and burden on large companies. Why? Because a very small number of them pulled some dumb shit, and now everyone who forms a corporation is "evil" until proven otherwise (or, from your perspective, evil no matter what). Presumbly that also includes, say, a band that incorporates to handle their recording expenses and t-shirt revenue, too. Evil, so evil!
Why is is OK for a "capitalistic" company to personally allowed to cost you money/time, yet if a private person does it, it is a "crime"?
Maybe you'll get a lucid answer if you ask a more relevent question. A corporation costs me money when I elect to do business with them, or when I elect public figures that contract with them. They don't really have any other legal vectors by which to "cost" me money. Sort of like the guy deploying worms on the net doesn't have a legal way to waste my time.
Why should a corp be allowed to commit a crime and only get fined yet, if a private "citizen" committed the _same_ crime would get jail time?
Specifically what crime are you referring to? You can certainly cost everyone in a company their jobs, and cost all of the company's investors all of the college-fund money they had tied up in the company's stock... good enough for you? Check with Enron, or Arthur Anderson. People working at those companies, but which had nothing to do with the bad acts of a few people, paid the price. Good enough for you? Other people did go to jail. Good enough for you?
After all, he was looking out for "share holders best interests" to MAKE MONEY
Do you even think about the words you use? MAKING money means producing something, and in a market economy, doing so in a way that finds a willing buyer at a mutually agreed price. Someone sneaking spyware onto an unwitting person's machine sure as hell isn't participating in a market economy, he's a parasite.
Don't disappoint your bird dog. Go to the range.
You're a moron. First, where did it say Diabl0 did this on behalf of any corporation?
Second, tell me which "corporation" has legally gotten away with illegally hacking into user computers, then installing a trojan that will allow them to install whatever they want?
Third, WTF does this have to do with the USA specifically? MOST countries today are capitalistic.
It seems you have a beef with USA/corporations/capitalism and are just using any excuse to drag them down.
eTrade SUCKS
...just want to add to my post:
If the USA (and the UK) kept their armies and "intelligence" agencies from fucking around with the rest of the world, the world would be a better and safer place. Iranian oil, Iraqi oil, Venezuelan oil is none of your fucking business. You don't have any right to it.
Yes, you have a near-perfect education system that produces plenty of cannon-fodder (poor and/or brainwashed enough) that your well-funded armies can send to whatever place they want to steal whatever stuff they want.
No, that still doesn't mean you're right.
</rant>
Free as in mason.
No. Sex is not the answer. Sex is the question. "Yes" is the answer.
The illegal we do immediately. The unconstitutional takes a little longer.
--Henry Kissinger
that an historical report is different from a generalized command.
The Biblical quote you give is an historical report of a specific event. The Quran text was a generalized command.
Furthermore, mainstream Christian belief is that the "New Testament" gives the rules for the religion, essentially replacing any given in the Old Testament, which is relegated to being a historical narrative. (note that the 10 commandments are re-iterated in the New). Mainstream Christianity also believes the Bible is subject to interpretation and not necessarily literal truth, fundamentalism is a minority view. Witness current debate within the Christian community over evolution vs. 7 day creation.
AFAIK, mainstream Islam believes in the literal truth of the Quran and Liberal Islam is the minority view.
That's not to say extreme violence hasn't been practiced by Christians claiming Biblical support, such as the Crusades or the Inquisition. I believe most, if not all, Christians would today repudiate those actions. While there are certainly Christians today practicing violence, any doing it in the name of their religion are an extreme minority.
Modern Islamic calls for Jihad and violence against "infidels" are prevalent, although certainly not universal.
As with most things, there are shades of grey. But it seems that the balance shows mainstream (when considered globally) Islam promoting violence against non-believers.
Feel free to correct my understanding, I don't claim to be an expert in either religion.
"National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law