While this sort of behavior might seem superficially similar to that of terrorism as described under "Political agitation," or to vandalism as described under "Online gangs," it's not terrorism, and it's more personal than typical vandalism. It is a simple criminal act, aimed at a specific target, more akin to assault. People with business interests may do this not for profit or for political purposes, but to damage other businesses' ability to compete, at least temporarily.
Government agencies may do so to try to bully another government into doing something it doesn't want to do, as appears to have been the case in the Estonian "cyberwar. Why do people play online games? Why do people do crosswords or play chess? It's the element of competition, pitting your wits and skill against that of others. It's a competition to see who can write the best virus, who can beat the antivirus companies, who can beat Microsoft's developers.
I suspect the vast majority of virus writers are male, because competitiveness is a predominantly but certainly not exclusively male trait. It's not necessarily about being malicious, not always about money; it's sometimes about winning, about challenging the rest of the world and beating them.
It's the cyber age version of graffiti, the Internet equivalent of the adolescent challenging the mature and making waves. Give us sixty bucks and we'll fix it! I knew a few guys in the early 90s who wrote viruses simply to get noticed as capable programmers.
Offering up a virus, then creating a removal tool and sending it to major players F-protect, Computer Associates, Kaspersky, etc.
In fact, I remember a time when that was the key focus behind writing viruses and exploiting code -- to show off your talents compared to existing engineers. Who do you think major antivirus companies hire to write removal tools? The same criminals who exploit systems, of course.
Then they'd go to a competitor and show them the competition's weaknesses and use THAT to get work with the competitor. If I had to guess, I'd say that the most common reasons to write viruses these days, by far, are at least somewhat profit-motivated.
The I Love You email virus was kind of a watershed incident, the point where a lot of people really started noticing the growing trend in profit-generating mobile malicious code. Any attempt to explain away all virus, worm, and other malicious code writing using a single generalization is unreasonably simplistic, though. Cybercriminals have continued to develop ways to exploit computers and devices for financial gain. Rogue Security Software has paved the way for more recent threatening malware.
FakeAV was one of the first types of Rogueware to emerge. Rogueware tricks a user into believing that they have a virus, usually in the form of a pop up on a website. The Rogueware then tries to lure the user with a download link to a fake antivirus removal tool. Sometimes charging a fee, sometimes not, the result is the same- downloading the suggested software only installs malware onto the computer.
The people behind the Rogueware moved on to more disruptive threats such as Ransomware and most recently Cryptolocker.
In , the CryptoLocker family of Ransomware emerged. Mostly disguised as an email attachment and, the program encrypts targeted files, in turn blocking users from accessing them. The malware displays a message demanding payment via BitCoin or MoneyPak in exchange for the encryption key. If payment was not received by the established deadline, the key would be deleted, leaving the target without access to their data forever. Contrary to popular belief, traditional antivirus software alone will not fully protect you from threats.
Instead, look into full Internet security software suites such as Norton Internet Security. Not only will it scan your system for viruses, but it will also scan your inbox for potential threats, comes with firewall protection, anti-phishing technology and much more.
Even with a full Internet security software suite, there are still more precautions that can be taken. Users should still be wary about any unfamiliar attachments or links via email, as well as social media. Always run system updates, which usually repair security flaws and can protect the computer against a variety of online threats. Variants may emerge because people are immune to the old virus. Taylor McNeil can be reached at taylor. Skip to main content. By Taylor McNeil.
June 9, Are there different varieties of virus genomes? And how do mutations happen? Are they different in DNA vs. RNA viruses? What else affects mutations? How are influenza viruses different from coronaviruses? November 10, Some malware is created by people who want to damage a company or organization.
This might be created by a disgruntled employee, or someone else with a specific agenda. There are a few things that we all can do to protect our computers.
It prevents access to infected websites, cleans malware from your email, and blocks infected files from USB devices.
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