Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Accused Zotob Worm Author Says Money Was Motive

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the crime-still-pays dept.

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."

33 of 213 comments (clear)

  1. What is the answer to 99 out of 100 questions? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Money.

    1. Re:What is the answer to 99 out of 100 questions? by Jah-Wren+Ryel · · Score: 3, Insightful


      the sickness of Islam doesn't end there

      Its fuckers like you
      who say shit like that
      that really piss me off.

      Those acts are no more about Islam than Pat Robertson calling for the assasination of Hugo Chaves is about Christianity and it doesn't stop there. Any mainstream religion will have plenty of nutz on the fringe who will do whatever evil they fucking want to and then blame it on their god. That doesn't, in any way, invalidate the religion, it just proves that evil will use whatever tool it can.

      With over a billion muslims in the world, it is just plain stupid to judge them based on the actions of the most extreme fringes of their society. How would you feel if all white people in the world were treated as if the actions and beliefs of the KKK were their own actions and beliefs?

      --
      When information is power, privacy is freedom.
    2. Re:What is the answer to 99 out of 100 questions? by LittleBigLui · · Score: 5, Informative
      Instead, try to figure out how it's our fault that the Iranians are killing people for such ludicrous "offenses."


      Easy. From Wikipedia:

      The 16th century saw renewed independence with the Safavids and then other lines of kings or shahs. During the 19th century Persia came under pressure from both Russia and the United Kingdom leading to a process of modernisation that continued into the 20th century. By the 20th century Iranians were longing for a change and thus followed the Persian Constitutional Revolution of 1905/1911. In 1953 Iran's prime minister Mohammed Mossadeq, who had been elected to parliament in 1923 and again in 1944 and who had been prime minister since 1951, was removed from power in a complex plot orchestrated by British and US intelligence agencies ("Operation Ajax").

      Many scholars suspect that this ouster was motivated by British-US opposition to Mossadeq's attempt to nationalize Iran's oil. Following Mossadeq's fall, Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi (Iran's monarch) grew increasingly dictatorial. With strong support from the USA and the UK, the Shah further modernised Iranian industry but crushed civil liberties. His autocratic rule, including systematic torture and other human rights violations, led to the Iranian revolution and overthrow of his regime in 1979. After more than a year of political struggle between a variety of different groups, an Islamic republic was established under the Ayatollah Khomeini by popular vote.

      So USA and UK tried to protect the Iranian people from a - umm - democratic regime and reinstalled their beloved tyrant. The ungrateful Iranians didn't like that, revolted, and from that mess emerged another group of tyrants, which like to kill people for ludicous "offenses".

      While the new tyrans aren't the USA/UKs fault per se, it is obvious that their rise to power was eased by USA/UKs greed for oil and their lack of respect for democracy and autonomy.

      q.e.d.
      --
      Free as in mason.
  2. Anti Virus firms will kick his butt by deft · · Score: 4, Insightful

    "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.
    1. Re:Anti Virus firms will kick his butt by ackthpt · · Score: 4, Insightful
      "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! =)

      Whose business model? Who is actually doing the paying? Some low-life add-popper, or the companies who make so much money on virii/worm erradication that they can buy naming rights to stadia?

      I still think the really story is what these guys will say, assuming they talk and don't have some mob death threat hanging overy their heads.

      --

      A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
    2. Re:Anti Virus firms will kick his butt by mroch · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Actually, "stadia" is plural, but in the wrong context. Stadia were a Roman unit of measurement equivalent to the length of a stadium, but "stadiums" are more than one stadium.

  3. Youngins.... by RobertKozak · · Score: 5, Funny

    ...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 .sig looks familiar.
    1. Re:Youngins.... by Cerdic · · Score: 3, Insightful

      If we had an infinite number of ScuttleMonkeys typing this story, they would eventually get the grammar correct.

      --
      Advice for my fellow geeks: before seeking out that threesome you dream of, you might see what a TWOsome is like first.
    2. Re:Youngins.... by Alien+Being · · Score: 3, Funny

      You have just solved the mystery of dupes.

  4. Oh, *phew*! by MutantHamster · · Score: 5, Funny
    "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."

    For a minute there I thought he was a real asshole.

    --
    My Greatest Heist - Muisc partly inspired by the unbeatable Qwantz
  5. Something must be done! by metamatic · · Score: 5, Funny

    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
    1. Re:Something must be done! by Sabaki · · Score: 5, Funny

      No can do. Surely you've heard that money has root access to all evil?

    2. Re:Something must be done! by DigitalReverend · · Score: 3, Funny

      I can just see the terminal session now (goes into a dream sequence)....


      C:\WINDOWS>telnet all_evil
      Connecting To all_evil...

      SunOS 6.6.6

      login: root
      Password: money

      Last login: Tue Jun 6 06:06:06 from 72.69.76.76
      Sun Microsystems Inc. SunOS 6.6.6
      all_evil@hades [/] rm -rf /

      --
      I read Slashdot for the headlines, because the headlines, unlike the articles, are usually original and never duplicated
  6. The other one is... by Poromenos1 · · Score: 5, Funny

    42!

    --
    Send email from the afterlife! Write your e-will at Dead Man's Switch.
    1. Re:The other one is... by bleckywelcky · · Score: 3, Funny

      Hold on a minute, you mean the answer to life, the universe, and everything is not money? Boy am I in the wrong line of work.

  7. Commission Theft by HermanAB · · Score: 5, Informative

    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...
    1. Re:Commission Theft by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      Here's* an interesting writeup regarding 180networks.

      On another interesting note, the privacy policy of the site where 180 networks 'officially' distributes it's crapware, http://zango.com/, bears no mention of this referrer-stealing. Ironically, they are even so bold as to show a little anti-spyware animated GIF at the bottom of the page**.



      *Coral cached to avoid toasting some poor web server just because it hosts an interesting file.
      **No coral cache for leeching scumbags.

  8. One Fine Afternoon in Morroco by ackthpt · · Score: 5, Funny
    Diab10: [hack, code, hack, code, code, hack...]

    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
    1. Re:One Fine Afternoon in Morroco by WhatAmIDoingHere · · Score: 4, Funny

      Nice post. The sad part is I had no problems understanding it.

      I speak two languages, english and l337.

      --
      Not a Twitter sockpuppet... but I wish I was.
  9. Re:Jail by ackthpt · · Score: 5, Interesting
    They should jail this idiot for a long time and confiscate all the money he earnt doing this. Getting rid of him won't help much. Other tards will soon follow his lead. Death penalty for anybody that does this?

    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
  10. Re:A question about the Turk guy. by Rosco+P.+Coltrane · · Score: 3, Funny

    Neither. He was from Byzantium...

    --
    "A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
  11. Re:What? by slavemowgli · · Score: 4, Informative

    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.
  12. So what is wrong with what with what Diabl0 did? by AstroDrabb · · Score: 4, Interesting
    Seriously. Corps here in the USA are constantly allowed to "push the bar" as far as they can. Consumer opinion need not apply. 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"?

    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
  13. Re:A question about the Turk guy. by JeanBaptiste · · Score: 3, Funny

    That's nobody's business but the Turk's

  14. Re:I was wondering about this... by gkozlyk · · Score: 4, Funny

    How come this worm can remove Gator, but i can't?

    --
  15. The Moron's Businiess Plan by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    1. Wait till MS announces a new exploit.
    2. hack up a virus, release on 'net
    3. ......Jail!

  16. Answer to the hundredth question? by slugo3 · · Score: 3, Funny

    100. Porn

  17. A new generation of virus author? by AltControlsDelete · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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.

  18. Re:I was wondering about this... by budgenator · · Score: 3, Funny

    Removing Gator is some serious shit, I'm not sure degaussing the harddrive always gets rid of it.

    --
    Apocalypse Cancelled, Sorry, No Ticket Refunds
  19. If only the kid had incorporated... by Serveert · · Score: 4, Funny

    he could have avoided this legal mess.

    --
    2 years and no mod points. Join reddit. Because openness is good.
  20. on that 'removing spyware' note... by Phil+Urich · · Score: 3, Interesting

    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!
  21. Cartago delenda est by HermanAB · · Score: 3, Informative

    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...
  22. Well of COURSE it was for the money! by __aailob1448 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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.