Who makes computer viruses and why?

[ElMondoHummus]

Ayup. Recursive percussive maintenance.

If a mechanical device is giving you trouble, and you don't know what the exact problem is, hit it with a hammer.

If it starts working again, problem solved.
If it shatters into a million pieces, then at least you know what the problem is (it's shattered into a million pieces) and how to fix it (buy a new one).
If neither happens, get a bigger hammer.

LOL... folks, remember the older generation of hard drive that, when the spindle motor became weak enough to where the lubricant viscosity kept it from spinning up, people would quite literally hit (well, tap) the drive with a tool to get it working again? I actually have an old drive that has that exact problem; I haven't used it for years, but last time I fired it up just to see if it held something I could've sworn I had, I literally had to take it out of its external casing and rap it a few times before it would spin.

So yeah, percussive maintenance. Works like a charm.

rouge

Rogue?

Rolfe.

No, no, rouge. The red, blushing malware.

Or maybe it's communist...

 

[NewtonTrino]

I imagine that nowadays viruses etc. are seldom written and distributed just for fun. Also the early format C: kind of sabotage stuff seems to have quite much disappeared. In modern world most viruses seem to serve the interests of their more or less professional creators, no unnecessary risks taken without a profit motive. The thumb rule seems to be: make minimal damage and raise minimal attention, do quietly and unnoticeably whatever you do.

I can fully believe that it has shifted from fun to profit. I don't have much contact with hacker types these days because more often than not my company is a target of such attacks.

 

[TubbaBlubba]

Dawkins had a long, very furious footnote rant about computer viruses in the -89 edition of The Selfish Gene. In those pre-internet days things were obviously different, but I thought it was very on-the-spot.

"I say little, because those people are mentally little!"

 

[Little 10 Toes]

I think that some of the viruses were/are made as a mental/technical challenge.

 

[Vermonter]

A lot of the botnet viruses are aimed at financial institutions and hospitals. They contain keyloggers and sophisticated ways of replication and mutation. Gather financial data or electronic health records and send 'em off for nefarious purposes. Keep the activities subtle so they are harder to detect, and code it to launch multiple waves of file transfer attempts. It's all about money, at least with these particular programs.

 

[Dancing David]

rouge

Hey malware wants to look pretty too!

Argh, stupid lack of orthographics reform....

Rogue security software^WP

 

[Dancing David]

LOL... folks, remember the older generation of hard drive that, when the spindle motor became weak enough to where the lubricant viscosity kept it from spinning up, people would quite literally hit (well, tap) the drive with a tool to get it working again? I actually have an old drive that has that exact problem; I haven't used it for years, but last time I fired it up just to see if it held something I could've sworn I had, I literally had to take it out of its external casing and rap it a few times before it would spin.

So yeah, percussive maintenance. Works like a charm.

Have you tried putting it in the freezer, old timers told me about that one.

 

[Dancing David]

I can fully believe that it has shifted from fun to profit. I don't have much contact with hacker types these days because more often than not my company is a target of such attacks.

There are still the hackers as opposed to pirates, they do things like drop notes on people's desktops telling them their system was compromised.

 

[Dancing David]

I think that some of the viruses were/are made as a mental/technical challenge.

That was sure true in the very early days, self replicating code and all that.

 

[LibraryLady]

I think at least some of these people are like arsonists. They just like to step back and watch it burn.

 

[BobHaulk]

Apple do it do annoy non apple users

 

[Belz...]

I know that the next obvious step for those advocating the "cui bono" argument is to further pound on it by highlighting how big an industry protective software has become. But at this point, I'd have to tell you all that the only acceptable argument is to actually demonstrate such links, not merely claim they can exist.

Indeed. It's just like people saying "big pharma" is making us sick, or that programmers are putting bugs into their software on purpose. Inventing a story that seems to work is easy. Proving it corresponds to reality is not.

 

[Belz...]

LOL... folks, remember the older generation of hard drive that, when the spindle motor became weak enough to where the lubricant viscosity kept it from spinning up, people would quite literally hit (well, tap) the drive with a tool to get it working again?

We used to have a Commodore 64 back in the 80s, and when the floppy drive acted up, I used to hit it with my fist. Very often, this kinda snapped it back to reality and get it past whatever problem it had. It doesn't make sense, but not hitting it and waiting didn't get any results. Same thing with the C64 itself. Nowadays if you hit your computer it's usually broken afterwards.

 

[Michael Mozina]

I have no idea. Do you? What motivates someone to spend good time producing something that people will hate them for, if they even knew who did it, which most of the time they don't?

Cpl Ferro

About 15 years ago they *USED* to be written mostly by teenage "script kiddies" that did it more to prove they could do it rather than doing it for any monetary motive. These days however they tend to be written by bulk emailers and folks trying to get you to buy a malware removal program which doesn't actually fix the problem but does generate revenue.

 

[mikeyx]

I have no idea. Do you? What motivates someone to spend good time producing something that people will hate them for, if they even knew who did it, which most of the time they don't?

Cpl Ferro

Some are made by the upkeepers of Macafee's profit margins, some are by Lancaster's zombie hamster, the rest? well for those you who figured out how to properly wear the tinfoil hats, not the brazilian ones, we need to track ya somehow.

 

[Skeptic Ginger]

Indeed. It's just like people saying "big pharma" is making us sick, or that programmers are putting bugs into their software on purpose. Inventing a story that seems to work is easy. Proving it corresponds to reality is not.

Why do you suppose this particular malware shows a screen that says buy virus protection? It's not a direct link to a seller, but why this screen with this malware?

 

[Skeptic Ginger]

Some are made by the upkeepers of Macafee's profit margins, some are by Lancaster's zombie hamster, the rest? well for those you who figured out how to properly wear the tinfoil hats, not the brazilian ones, we need to track ya somehow.

I know little on this subject except what I've recently begun to read. I notice an article I linked to in my thread on leakers vs fabricators included a report by McAfee. Is that the company you were referring to or just a coincidentally similar name?

 

[Brainache]

Does natural selection affect these computer viruses?

Are we ever going to have face the prospect of evolved computer malware? Bots cooperating and clustering together to more efficiently target their unsuspecting prey?

 

[Kapyong]

Gday,

4. Rouge malware,

Rouge malware?
Like red make-up that is buggy?

Oh wait ...
ROGUE malware ... got it.



Kapyong

 

[Andrew Wiggin]

rouge

That would be malware that's red...