Slashdot Mirror
Security Researcher Chases Virus Maker Off the Net
An anonymous reader writes "There is a great writeup over on CNET covering the pursuit of a virus writer who created a fake Grand Theft Auto game, crippling PCs by causing them to endlessly reboot. Despite the police apparently not being very interested, a security researcher pursued his man anyway, culminating in a teary eyed 'I'm leaving the internet' post from the virus writer himself. Awesome stuff, and one in the eye for the bad guys (for once)."
They just send someone to do the hit on the virus writer.
Avoid Missing Ball for High Score
Who believes that for a second?
As any long-time denizen of BBSes or MUDs can tell you, every time someone posts that they are leaving it is always legit, and they never, ever come back.
I'm tired of hearing that meme. I'm leaving the internet forever!
Well, it was designed as a fake Grand Theft Auto game... It doesn't sound all that creative, though. I think a better "virus" would be making you actually drink coffee with your girlfriend(s) in GTA.
Is this really a computer virus? Malware sure, virus, no. It's like that program that would show you the drink holder (I think coke, sorry can't find a link) and open your cdrom drive. Only this adds a reg entry or puts something in the startup folder that and does a ExitWindowsEx call.
I guess that's all it takes to be "l33t" these days...
Mr. Universe: "They can't stop the signal, Mal. They can never stop the signal."
This isnt a virus, first off. It was a lame trojan. Like all others, cut-n-pasted by some 13 year old script kiddie, I mean just read the story and tell me it could be any other way.
So some blowhard self-important jackass "security researcher" harassed a little kid and made him cry.
What a fucking loser.
The REAL virus writers/blackhats, the ones infiltrating multi-billion dollar corps, are working for the russian mob.
Go after them, I double dog dare you.
I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
Now I have slashdot and I'm right back where I started, except there aren't a lot of easy slashdot girls... hmmm...
"Thank you for using Stop-n-Drop, America's favorite suicide booth since 2008"
From the articles linked, it appears to be nothing more than a GameMaker "game" which adds registry entries which cause shutdown.exe and logoff.exe to be called when you log in.
In fact, if this was considered malware... perhaps marginally, although it has no serious effects... it isn't a virus because it doesn't replicate itself and spread. The guy who wrote it is obviously a wannabe hacker... you know, the kind who use pre-built tools without a clue how they work. Except this guy couldn't even find tools so he used a game creation system. Lame.
You are as stupid as he.
"wahhh you are mean, im leaving" , ya right.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
When he comes back he will be welcomed with open arms - and a rock in each hand.
You can't talk about Wikipedia's flaws on Wikipedia
dude; nailing BBS chicks is nothing to brag about...
Well, based on the tone, it probably just means he's leaving AOL. So I believe it ;-)
Apology to Ubuntu forum.
I have a hard time believing that any "security researcher" would keep calling the application in question a "virus".
It sounds to me like the story is about *two* wannabes, not just one.
I want a new quote. One that won't spill. One that don't cost too much. Or come in a pill.
It depends. There was a BBS I used to use in the mid-80s in my area. Every once in a while, the sysop's sister would jump on while I was logged in and we'd talk for a few minutes. I was always really careful because I figured it might just be the sysop pretending to be his sister. At any rate, I figured that if it really _was_ his sister, she was probably a real dog (yes, a somewhat chauvinistic thought, but few girls back then had any interest whatsoever in computers, and those that did were almost guaranteed to be as homely as they come). Some months after I started using the BBS, I had a reason to go visit the sysop at his house (I forget why -- sharing pd software or something). While I was there, I met his sister, and I thought I was going to lose consciousness. She was drop-dead gorgeous -- one of the most attractive girls I've ever seen. Just going on a single date with her would have granted bragging rights, but there was absolutely no chance for me; I couldn't even form a complete sentence in her presence.
GreyPoopon
--
Why is it I can write insightful comments but can't come up with a clever signature?
Oh my head! I'll never drink again.
This story reads basically that some over zealous security researcher chased an incompetent malware script kiddie around for an app that compromised maybe 50 people. As far as accomplishment goes, this ranks up there with shooting fish in a barrel and apparently proves he can do Google searches.
I'm glad that there is a minimum damage level before law enforcement gets involved because this would be a tremendous waste of tax payer dollars to go after and then, given how totally out of whack the laws are in regards to this kind of thing because of Luddite terror of people with technical ability, we'd probably have to end up paying this moron's housing for five years and create another person with a criminal record who cannot get employed and thus gets even more benefits at our expense.
And at the end of the day, it proves nothing. From a technical standpoint, someone could easily create an false identity like this, even the sign off part. The whole investigation trail is based off string comparisons. Whether it is "John" in Philadelphia or a really smart dog in Detroit, who knows?
Yawn. The problem with society today is that they classify "mild inconvenience" as "harm". No-one got killed. Anyone who lost money should have known better than to install random games from the Internet on their work machine.
It's a prank. Not a terribly amusing one, but they can't all be gold.
How we know is more important than what we know.
Why not let the punishment fit the crime? They give you a data-scrambling virus, dose them up with mercury. They give you a virus that infects others, we give them herpes. Etc, etc...
So what does Bill Gates get? While some of his data scrambling has been accidental, much is intentional. The upgrade treadmill alone has cost more than any virus or trojan and it hits those who try hardest! Sabotage of other company's software has also cost millions of man hours. The problem with your method of punishment is that it must just suck to be Bill Gates. How can you get any crazier than to sit around dreaming of global software domination, smear campaigns and other strangeness M$ gets up to at his command?
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
"Anyone who lost money should have known better than to install random games from the Internet on their work machine."
You're an idiot.
I would argue that a guy walking around in gold chains in a bad neighbourhood (or a woman walking around in a skimpy outfit) may contribute to being beaten up, raped, robbed or even killed but I'd never argue the murders, rapists, or robbers should therefore go free because they should have known better. That kind of logic makes slums and moves us towards the law of the jungle.
A prank that causes financial loss should be punished. Despite your cavallier attitude to it, kids have always been getting into trouble including going to jail when pranks go wrong...and so they should. We all need to be responsible for our own actions. We don't get a free pass because we were being mischeivious.
You wouldn't react to a "prank" where some teenage kids trashed your house because you left your door unlocked by saying "oh well it was my fault, kids will be kids".
By the way in case you haven't noticed by the way things have changed. Kids use to call in bomb scares all the time. Do that in this day and age and prison is a real possibility. Why? Because it diverts resources from real risks and because it does society a lot of financial and emmotional damage. (We may have gone overboard in recent years but the principle that you're responsible for the results of your actions is a sound one).
These posts express my own personal views, not those of my employer
No, you're the idiot.
If you think kids, or anyone, should be jailed for causing a couple of idiots to lose a few hours work or have to pay to have someone fix their computer after doing something stupid.
Your society is fucked up not because people tolerate crime.. it's fucked up because you've made everything a crime, and you've made even a minor infraction of the law a black mark that follows people for the rest of their lives.
How we know is more important than what we know.
No matter wat I'm sure it makes him more or less pathetic.
To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it