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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."
...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
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
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.
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.
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.