Why Viruses?

What motivates people to exploit security holes and write computer viruses? I think its two things, like anything they are motivated by money. One of the huge reasons they write viruses is for spammers who make money and employ some of the 'cream of the crop' virus writers. They can exploit security holes to make zombie machines who will unwittingly send out tons of spam. As long as there are people out there who click on spam and buy stuff the spammers will keep making money and continue to produce more and more spam.

Secondly, like the old 'script kiddies' from my days on Internet Relay Chat, they are looking for respect and 'street cred'. Back then the 'script kiddies' would flood nodes until they would ping out of the network and they could gain 'Op' status (channel operator) and thus control over that particular channel. These virus writers want status among other virus writers and their friends.

A possible third category which I don't think I give merit to are people who just want to hinder Windows users. While I am by no means a Windows or Microsoft proponent, I do use Windows because they seem to find a way to keep us chained to what they push on us. These people want any kind of news that makes Microsoft get negative press and possibly shed positive light on Linux.

How do we foil these people, well there is a huge segment of the population who are not computer savy and do not understand that they need to update their computer. Furthermore, there are many people on dialup that don't update because its 56k or worse. But probably the biggest thing is to find a way to cut into the profits of the spammers. How do we do this? I don't really know, maybe threaten them with prolonged torture, immense fines and public humiliation.

Now in funny news (article link here):

"A man has been arrested in Japan on suspicion carrying out a virtual mugging spree by using software "bots" to beat up and rob characters in the online computer game Lineage II. The stolen virtual possessions were then exchanged for real cash."

"Several players had their characters beaten and robbed of valuable virtual objects, which could have included the Earring of Wisdom or the Shield of Nightmare. The items were then fenced through a Japanese auction website, according to NCsoft, which makes Lineage II. The assailant was a character controlled by a software bot, rather than a human player, making it unbeatable."

*wiping eyes from laughing* That is so darn funny! This comes on the heels of a Korean guy dying after a 50+ hour marathon of gaming (Starcraft or something like it). The Asians are some weird people, I like anime but some of the things they do over there is just down right odd.

What have we learned today: 1) its all about the money 2) Viruses suck 3) virus writers and spammers are evil 4) some of those Asian people are very odd.