Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Virus Author Motives Changing

Posted by Zonk on from the step-five-profit dept.

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. "

3 of 126 comments (clear)

  1. What's more.. by ackthpt · · Score: 5, Interesting
    What's more is they didn't even want you to know that sneaking under the radar without being caught was their goal. Seems they failed on that account miserably. So what's the lesson here? Have a virus/worm with a limited life span? After the first n machines have been infected cease spreading?

    Sure as there's imagination there'll be more tactics to come.

    --

    A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
    1. Re:What's more.. by Amouth · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Set a ttl and have it relay messages back through its parent host..

      I infect A to infect B+C to infect D+E+F+G and so on.. the messages are passed backwards Have A send random messages to a nother host.. pic up your messages somewere in the stream

      they can't detect it by watching an irc server for inbound connections.. sure they can see who is infected but only one computer each way.. and if you have fun with it by fliping the address around (10.20.30.40 infects 40.30.20.11 infects 11.20.30.41 ....) just keep them guessing..

      use normal transport sockets.. make it look like valid traffic .. i sware the writers are getting lazy.. make something creative.. i have seen spyware that is harder to remove than most viruses these days..

      just some ideas for the people willing to write them.. :)

      --
      '...if only "Jumping to a Conclusion" was an event in the Olympics.'
  2. Or maybe they don't want you to look at porn! by antdude · · Score: 4, Interesting

    See The Register's story.

    --
    Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).