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Profile of the Mind of a Virus Writer
Posted by
timothy
on Mon Feb 09, 2004 07:17 AM
from the read-on-empty-stomach dept.
from the read-on-empty-stomach dept.
zdburke writes "Clive Thompson, writing for the NY Times, has profiled several young computer virus writers around the world. A young Austrian wrote a Batch Trojan Generator which has simple options for constructing your next virus: fomat drive C? Overwrite every file? It's very well written by an author who clearly knows his stuff."
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Well, if the source of many viruses is correct... (Score:5, Funny)
In other news... (Score:5, Funny)
am I the only one???? (Score:3, Insightful)
It just gave me the creeps, knowing that this is an article for nerds.
Re:am I the only one???? (Score:3, Interesting)
On a more serious note, get a grip. If the sight of some bare shoulders on a guy is having you squirm like a pre-pubescent girl, you've got some serious growing up to do.
As for whatever brain donors modded his whining "Insightful," quit trying to rival the goatsecx guy and pull your heads out of own asses
Some you win, some you lose (Score:5, Informative)
On the down side this is a duplicate article [slashdot.org], on the plus side this version has a link to the Google partner version of the article. (So no login required).
I guess this means that I can't gain karma by posting a mirror. Do you think I'm in with a chance of anything else? ;)
Hmmm. (Score:5, Insightful)
But it says right there... "Please write the online editor at daddypants@slashdot.org for any corrections.".
I decide to write that it was a dupe. Sure enough, the thing gets posted anyway.
I mean, that's partly what subscribers are for. And that's also why subscribers can't do comments early. Right?
It's silly. Not only should the editors actually read slashdot, they should more importantly look at email from subscribers saying "It's a dupe!" before posting the thing.
But maybe it's just me thinking in a perfect world. Forget it.
Re:Hmmm. (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Hmmm. (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Stop Whining! (Score:3, Funny)
Automatic virus creation is nothing new. (Score:5, Informative)
Today's viruses are absolutely pathetic compared to some of the older stuff.
Re:Automatic virus creation is nothing new. (Score:5, Funny)
Basically, "Help on Help" told you how to navigate the Help system. "Help on Help on Help", was a very funny rant, detailing how to buy a gun and kill yourself.
Parent
Re:Automatic virus creation is nothing new. (Score:4, Funny)
Wow how can I remember something like this?
Parent
Since I missed it the first time around... (Score:5, Insightful)
Maybe this is just crazy talk, but couldn't this woman just take his computer away from him? She knows that he's upstairs doing illegal stuff...he's 16, take away his laptop. "Oh, well little Billy's just upstairs making pipe-bombs...I'll leave him alone."
Parents are there to be...parents.
Re:Since I missed it the first time around... (Score:5, Insightful)
Parent
Re:Since I missed it the first time around... (Score:5, Insightful)
Parent
Deja-vu (Score:5, Funny)
VB generator (Score:3, Funny)
When I was 17, there wren't any trojans that would come with source code. At that time, NetBus was pretty popular, so I wrote my own client-server trojan using Delphi. Since I was the ony person who had access to it, it was completely immune to antivirus software and that meant lots & lots of fun with school computers.
Ah, good old times...
Re:Virus generators (Score:3, Interesting)
Another good feature would be to include the code for the generator itself with each copy of the generated viruses that would intermittently pop up a dialog box saying: "The virus you have been infected with needs to evolve, please answer a few questio
script kiddies (Score:5, Insightful)
Aspiring young hackers?! Aspiring young hackers don't cut and paste other people's code.
Warning: E-mail viruses detected (Score:5, Funny)
To: editor@slashdot.org
Subject: Profile of the Mind of a Virus Writer
Date: Mon Feb 9 6:00:55 2004
Any infected parts of the message have not been delivered.This message is simply to warn you that your computer system may have a virus present and should be checked. The virus detector said this about the message:
Report: message.zip contains Worm.MyDupe.Slashdot
Cool (Score:5, Insightful)
It has pictures, name and locations.
Now the sysadmins have someone to beat up and the legal department can take some potshots at them for paying damages caused by virusses.
Timothy, do you ever check the fucking stories? (Score:4, Insightful)
Sadly, this NY Times story got more readers... (Score:5, Insightful)
MyDoom's ultimate target was an obscure software company named SCO. Champions of the open Net have portrayed SCO as the Antichrist since it sued to establish part-ownership of a popular and free computer operating system called Linux. Linux has become an icon of the so-called open-source movement, which is seeking to limit the influence of companies like SCO and the industry giant, Microsoft, which closely guard their software.
Re:Sadly, this NY Times story got more readers... (Score:3, Interesting)
The blokes website (Score:3, Funny)
Oh, the irony (Score:5, Funny)
So, we have a 16 year old virus writer accusing other hackers of being childish. Doesn't that seem just a tad ironic?
Challenge, schmallenge (Score:3, Interesting)
Nope. They're vandals posing as artists.
Re:Challenge, schmallenge (Score:4, Insightful)
Some hackers find problems with popular software, others create security schemes, some experiment with protocols, some reverse engineer drivers, etc. Some hackers are productive and non-intrusive.
Parent
Re:Challenge, schmallenge (Score:3, Informative)
Apparently, these folks don't realize that the traffic from spreading the worm is a large portion of the damage caused.
Perhaps they should read some of the literature that's rather widely available?
Don't believe a word of it (Score:3, Interesting)
First, the accurate but uncheckable details: name of some guy in Austria, his 15-year old girlfriend.
Secondly, as has been remarked, the photos. They are just too well shot, and I can't for a second believe that a virus author would sit still while the makeup girls did their thing, lighting got the shadows right... no frigging way!
Thirdly, the technical details are obviously wrong. Formatting hard drives? Deleting files? That is so 1980's. Today's virus writers are obsessed with the social interface: how to confuse people into clicking the attachment.
Forthly, the timing. A long, detailed investigation into youthful virus writers just as the worst ever virus hits the Internet, with no mention of mafia connections, of zombie spam engines, of "sorry, andy, but this was just my job",...? WTF?
Conclusion: it's a set-up. These young dudes don't exist as described, the shots are of actors, and the story was invented behind a desk. Someone wants to create a convincing enemy for new legislation which will paint uncontrolled hacker youthdom as the enemy of all that is right and proper. Long prison sentences for simply creating the wrong kind of software ("because it could be released and do harm"). Rapid implementation across the globe ("cause these guys are in, like, Austra!").
Now, allow me to get really cynical and ask this question: why is no-one bothering with profiles of the organized criminals behind most of the damage done to people's computers? Could it be because misdirecting the blame at youth hackerdom means the problem will not be solved, and so the hand of oppressive government can become stronger and stronger...
Of course, I could be wrong, and really viruses like mydoom could just be the work of guys like this.
MOD down :: Improve your reading (Score:3, Insightful)
First, that sort of thing is in numerous articles.. so it's a useless starting point.
Second, the photos aren't very good. It's easier to tell if you look at the pictures in the NYTimes magazine. One's blurry and grainy, another is heavily dodged (darkened) everywhere except where that "Benny" guy is, and the detroit kid does seem to have on makeup, but the picture is just slow shutter with soft focus and a light flare.
Third, when I read the article.. it talked about how formatting hard drives was old an
Go ahead a flame away, but... (Score:3, Insightful)
Men are pigs..and virus writers! (Score:3, Insightful)
''The F.B.I. is out for the Sobig guy with both
claws, and they want to make an example
of him,'' David Perry.
Women don't write viruses?
Women don't read slashdot?
I feel so pigeonholed!!
When reading articles like this... (Score:4, Insightful)
Now, think about how off-center computer-related articles are. Anything that deals with technology.
Have you ever had first-hand experience with a story your local paper covered? And while reading the story, you think to yourself, "Where the hell did they get their (mis)information??"
Apply that to EVERY story in the news. Scary, isn't it?
VB? WTF?! (Score:5, Interesting)
Jeez...VB? Real virus hax0rz work in assembly, it's smaller, neater, and faster. These guys are a bunch of script kiddie punks. No wonder they were hip to being interviewed, they had no talent and wanted a name for themselves.
Perhaps we should kill them.
Profile of the Mind of a Virus Writer.. (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Stiffer punishment (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Stiffer punishment (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Stiffer punishment (Score:3, Insightful)
Who accepts that? Just last year a man (I can not remember the name but the story made slashdot) almost went to jail for reporting a weaskness that could be exploited to a large corporation. e did not even exploit it, simply noticed it. If you think that in this post patriot act world you can hack using the above as an excuse, you are a bit out of to
Re:Stiffer punishment (Score:5, Insightful)
I believe the average sentence for murder in America is about eight years. Are you really suggesting that writing a virus is a more serious crime than murder?
(Ok, I'd agree, if that virus caused infrastructure damage that killed people... but then they should be jailed for manslaughter, not virus writing)
Parent
Re:Stiffer punishment (Score:5, Interesting)
Food for thought.
Parent
at the same time... (Score:5, Interesting)
Parent
Re:at the same time... (Score:5, Insightful)
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Re:at the same time... (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Stiffer punishment (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Stiffer punishment (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Stiffer punishment (Score:5, Insightful)
As it happens a very appropriate sig to the matter at hand.
I'd point out, however, that the rioter is often expressing a generalized anger, often against the innocent, indeed often against the very supporters of his own cause. It reduces the cause to an act of thuggery in way no different than any other act of violence.
A thoughtful and directly relevant resistence is more fruitful, just and likely to draw further support.
John Brown's taking of the Harper's Ferry Armory is still the stuff of legend. Tim McVeigh's bombing of the Murrah Federal Building is, and shall remain, an act of infamy.
Some virus writers are angry young men with legitimate cause for their anger.
Wiping Grandma's C drive as part of an act of generalized vandalism is a poor way to express that anger and does nothing to actually relieve it's cause. It does not even leave one with an idea what the virus writer percieves that cause as being.
John Brown is considered a terrorist by a good many to this day, but at least we know what the hell he was mad as heaven about.
If one has a distaste, or even an anger, about certain aspects of society or orginizations within that society, well and good. Oppose them. Oppose them with your words, your actions and even your very life if need be, but please, leave my mom and my grandmom out if it unless they are directly involved.
As to the issue of punishing minors as adults, I will accept this only at such time as the legally defined as adults. To deny a person of youth the franchise as a full citizen because he is too young, ignorant and immature, but hold him responsible, without the proper rights and benfits of full citizenship and representation, because he "is old enough to know the difference between right and wrong" is hypocritical, unjust and undemocratic.
This issue came to a head in the 60s when teenagers were being drafted for the Vietnam war, and yet those same teenagers were denied the right to vote on representation or other issues which had obvious life or death consequences to them.
That is why the age of majority was lowered from 21 to 18.
Rights and responsibilites should always, always, always march hand in hand.
KFG
Parent
Re:Stiffer punishment (Score:3)
I might also point out that this record incriminates not so much the child, but the juvenile detention system. If he commits an armed robbery at 17 and beats an old woman half a year latter wh
Re:Stiffer punishment (Score:4, Interesting)
Parent
How can you criticize Microsoft? (Score:5, Insightful)
How can you criticize Microsoft for this? There have been only 60 extremely serious vulnerabilities in Internet Explorer in two years.
The real source of the problem is..., well yes, Microsoft. One would think that Microsoft would be better at coding than someone who taught himself programming and writes programs on the weekends.
Parent