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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!
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"
dude; nailing BBS chicks is nothing to brag about...
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
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Why is it I can write insightful comments but can't come up with a clever signature?
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?