Mikko Hypponen's Malware Odyssey

CowboyRobot writes "Security expert Mikko Hypponen talks about his experience at F-Secure, including adventures such as flying to Lahore to interview the creators of 'Brain,' one of the early computer viruses that was spread manually on floppy disks. But while the early virus creators were just trying to have fun and learn, modern malware makers are motivated only by money. 'But there's a misconception that they all necessarily make a lot of money. There's a hierarchy of workers, with some just making a few hundred dollars to $1,000 doing the dirty work of the more experienced online criminals who make the real money.'"

Comments

Stuxnet certainly wasn't about money

[crazyjj]

Some malware these days is militarily and politically motivated too.

Crime really doesn't pay that well

[Sycraft-fu]

You discover when you look at it that it doesn't escape normal economic rules, in that the lower tier people doing menial work don't make tons of money, they make low wages. Even at the higher end it really doesn't pay that well, comparatively. You look at the drug lords and say "Wow those guys have a lot of money," but realize it is very few of them. then compare them to their legit rivals, the top tier businessmen like Gates, Buffet, Bezos, and so on, and they really don't compare all that well.

Crime ultimately ends up being just another kind of business.

Re:Malware would cease to be profitable

[Macgrrl]

We both know this is about as likely to happen as a dog ceasing to lick their balls. They do it because they can and it seems like a good idea at the time.