Inside the Mind of a Virus Writer 231
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."
Re:That stinks... (Score:5, Interesting)
It's like saying that banks shouldn't pay Frank Abignail millions of dollars to help them stop check fraud because he at one time stole millions of dollars the same way. When you get someone with that much inside perspective, the good they do can far outweigh their perceived shortcomings.
An interesting little quote (Score:3, Interesting)
Some antivirus firms say that I have no moral right to do it, but...almost all ex-members and current members of 29A are employed in the antivirus and information technology security industry.
Does this strike anybody else as a "wolf guarding the henhouse" scenario?
Circular Logic (Score:4, Interesting)
01: A virus writer releases a virus or worm,
02: A virus writer gets accused of damaging millions of computers
03: A virus writer says he did it to bring attention to X bug that could be potentially used to write a virus or worm for
04: GOTO 01
I realize that some companies are stubborn and have persued legal action against people who publish bugs in software, so a virus or worm can sometimes be the only effective way to bring public attention to a problem. However, this usually is in turned converted to bad press for the writer, and just backfires. The way I see it, this is a better argument than others for switching to OSS - no morbid fear that publishing a bug will result in a lawsuit (no matter how unfound half the time), and thus any virus/worm exploits on an open platform can be considered generally malicious, and the writer persued fully.
Turning point (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:That stinks... (Score:1, Interesting)
Sometimes those programs are called Viruses, sometimes spyware, sometimes worms.. etc. When you put them all in a pot and boil them down to their bare essentials, they all smell the same way -- programs that exploit insecurities in operating systems.
Excuse me, dumbass. There are many BENIGN ways to bring a lot of attention to insecurities in operating systems, which result in them getting fixed without costing people and companies millions of dollars in damages. Such sites are referenced nearly every day on slashdot.
On the extreme other hand you have viruses and worms, which are programs written to cause as much trouble as possible for as many people as possible. Releasing them is is a criminal act, plain and simple.
I am of the mind that we absolutely need people like Benny -- someone MUST check the locks to ensure that we are indeed safe.
I would rather have a locksmith check my locks to make sure they're safe, rather than a burglar breaking down my door and stealing all my valuables. I can learn the same lesson much more cheaply with the former.
For fuck's sake!
metaphor much? (Score:3, Interesting)
A poorly thought out simile is like a fish riding a bicycle, for reasons you would do well to contemplate on.
In the meantime, the safecracker metaphor is actually kind of revealing: getting input from the safecracker on how to protect future safes is invaluable, *but* you would of course expect any changes to be thoroughly reviewed by trusted engineers before they were accepted. I wonder if the firms employing old virus writers apply similar precautions?
Buy your own lock, and check that! (Score:2, Interesting)
> weaknesses in baysian filters.
No, the spam writers actually enter my property. That is like the people who spread vira, people who break into houses, or people who set off bombs. Or make unauthorized copies of dvd's.
Those who write the code to defeat baysian filters are not spammers, but on the categogy with people who write vira or create universal keys, or write on the net how to create bombs from household chemicals. Or write decsc.
The later group may expect some protection as freedom of expression. The first group should have no such protection.
The question is, do we believe that we can improve society through ignorance? If not, we must protect the second group, even when they do something we dislike.
my life with 29a/#virus (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Close ties between virus and anti-virus industr (Score:3, Interesting)
The challenge of virus/worm writing is having the thing spread, of manipulating systems and hiding.
The reason there is rarely a destructive payload is because there is absolutely no challenge in a destructive payload... any moron can write destructive code.
Contrary to what the movies, and thanks to them, the media like to make people think, the primary goal of most virus writers isn't to wreak havok on a global scale, it's simply to see their code spread around the world.
It's largely just very irresponsible behavior, not necessarly malicious.