Virus Author Motives Changing

Tragamor writes "BBC News is reporting that, with the suspected authors behind the zotob virus recently arrested, they are giving insights into the motivation of modern hackers. With the availability of virus sourcecode, authors are spreading to countries which had previously no history of virus origins." From the article: "What the pair were probably taken aback by was the response that the worm generated. Few virus writers now want to hit the front pages, said Mr Hypponen, most prefer to have their creations sneak under the radar, rack up a few thousand unwitting victims who are then milked for money or saleable data. It appears that Mr Essebar was intending to make money several different ways from the people caught out by the Mytob and Zotob viruses he is alleged to have created. "

Comments

Oh, the good old days.

[Silverlancer]

Back in the 90s, virus writing was a hobby, if a black-hat one. The most famous viruses--Melissa, ILOVEYOU, were all done for fun, not for profit. But as the internet went mainstream in the late 90s, the motivation changed--viruses are now merely a tool for a goal: criminal profit.

Re:Oh, the good old days.

[CDMA_Demo]

From the DOS days: you forgot Michaelangelo, Dark Avenger (Eddie Lives Somewhere in Time), Cannabis (Your PC is now Stoned), the Chrismas tree virus, or the Joker. There was also one called the Whale (The Whale is not a Fish) which used really advanced techniques to evade detection. Then there was a whole family of small viruses called the Tiny family which were written just as an experiment in writing really tiny code that works.

Four-words summary

[Spy der Mann]

Before: Fame.
Now: Fortune.

'Nuff said.

Re:Finally!

[JackDW]

Seriously, this could be bad. What if the clueless masses start to equate "available source code" and "virus"? Microsoft isn't going to correct them...

Repeat after me...

[Anonymous Coward]

If you MUST rely on virus detection software, you have already lost.

I've had people argue furiously that this is not true. Yet, it does not make sense tactically; if your enemy knows your weakness, it is not benificial to them to let you know about it -- else they loose the ability to exploit the weakness.

As such, do not attempt to secure what you do not control. Secure the hell out of what you do control. Treat everything else as potentially hostile.

Do the right thing and spend time to make things as simple as possible on the design level. Eventually, this will pay you back in reduced 'emergencies', though initially it is a real PITA. There's no other way to get a handle on these things -- it's just too complex already.

A trail that might lead back to the author.

[zerofoo]

Virus writers are now trying to harvest data for monetary gain; one would assume that this would create a traceable path back to the virus creator.

In the past, virus writers just wanted notoriety among other virus writers - not much of a trail left behind to follow.

Now, hopefully, law enforcement will start catching some of these people.

-ted

Re:Makes perfect sense

[WillDraven]

how about c) eliminate povery in 3rd world countries?

hey i can dream cant i?

Close

[geekoid]

but ther is no reason a hacker can not also be a virus writer. Then tradition definition of hacker implies skill, not moral conduct.