Inside the Mind of a Virus Writer

sebFlyte writes "news.com.com is running a very interesting interview with 'Benny' (AKA Marek Strihavka), a former member of the famed 29A russian virus-writing group, about what drove the group among other things. He's now one of several ex-virus writers working for security companies."

Well, it looks like we finally have step #2...

[errxn]

1. Write viruses
2. Work for antivirus company selling solutions to the viruses that you write
3. Profit!

Viral Ideas.

[Anonymous Coward]

"Inside the Mind of a Virus Writer"

Will I get infected reading the article?

Passionate Young Writer Pens Great American Virus

[tenzig_112]

An excerpt from
somesuch thing [ridiculopathy.com] about a passionate young code mangler:

Earnest in his desire to create a believable, honest, and confident email worm, Vallor spent the better part of a year researching the lives of Spanish explorers, history of potted meat, and geography of coastal Maine. After thoroughly outlining the project and writing a few initial lines, he suddenly lost his muse and shelved the project until his nerve returned. He then sequestered himself in his tiny apartment for more than a month, writing draft after draft until his viral manuscript was ready for compilation and distribution.

Like all good, passionate writing, Gokar is largely autobiographical. Vallor used various characters, the registry key for instance, from his real life:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESoftwareMicrosoftWindowsCurre ntVersionRun] "Karen" = "karen.exe"

Re:That stinks...

[Morosoph]

Of course, you could write an operating system, and then sell security for it [slashdot.org].

I'm disappointed

[anticypher]

I just RTFA, and there wasn't one mention of bone saws, power drills, or plastic explosives. How else would one get into the mind of a virus writer?

The only acceptable process for getting into the mind of a virus writer should be both irreversable and serve as a warning to others.

the AC

Inside the mind...

[hikerhat]

Looks pretty darn empty in there.

Re:Viral Ideas.

[Motherfucking Shit]

Will I get infected reading the article?

Only if you're running IE...

Re:That stinks...

[BrainP1L07]

...that stinks of "create a problem, then sell the solution"

So what? Isn'it just the new MS business plan?

Re:That stinks...

[slavemowgli]

Yeah, but you can't compare virus writers to M$. Virus writers have *some* ethics at least. ;)

Inside the mind of a virus writer...

[slashname3]

I was hoping they had a bunch of them with their skulls cracked open.....