Comments for Why do people make viruses?

Comment from Mark J on 2011-06-11

2011-06-11T19:00:33Z

Here are 14,800,000 reasons why:
http://www.f-secure.com/weblog/archives/00002182.html
(Copied from Ask-Leo Facebook Fan Page http://www.facebook.com/askleofan )

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A comment on: Why do people make viruses?

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Comment from Viruses are for nerds on 2011-04-10

2011-04-10T15:55:18Z

Viruses are for nerds that dont have anything better to do then do viruses ? you laugh when you get ur viruses done and sending them all over the Internet . Have a good life meaningless nerds

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Comment from Johnny on 2010-04-25

2010-04-26T02:42:12Z

All I've got to say is that the people who make viruses are the scum of the earth. They're pathetic lowlifes who have nothing better to do, so they broadcast how pathetic they are to the sorry average computer users that don't know what's going on. Fortunately for me, I know these things and will never be fooled by one. I've only lost to a virus once, because my dad took the computer in to get it fixed because I was taking too long to do it myself, I almost had it too. And yeah, I am ranting because I just got a nasty virus but I KICKED IT'S ASS. Imbecile virus makers, you can't get me you pathetic losers.

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Comment from TincanX on 2010-03-25

2010-03-25T16:33:00Z

I made a Virus for fun once. I was learning C++ wanted to contribute to the open source movement but then got bored. It logged key presses in a file and then on boot it would upload the file to the server and wipe it to start again. The idea was to see if I could steal credit card details and how easy it would be (not that I would ever use them) I had a few snags but the scary thing is it only takes 6 months knowledge to be able to do that.

The issue was that when entering credit card details you cannot tell what is put in the drop down boxes, I have thought of a work around that would work but I'm not going to indulge that information

I haven't found a efficient way to distribute the software (not that I would) but i feel sorry for you Microsoft Windows users as you have to be very careful, there is no way I could distribute a virus on a GNU/Linux or any *nix operating system (including MAC) that would work, if we all converted these criminals would struggle a lot more not in making viruses that work but getting them on PCs

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Comment from Bob on 2010-02-23

2010-02-23T16:32:41Z

As Leo said, a long time ago people just used to write "viruses" for fun. I knew several.
The point most people miss about viruses is, they exploit commands or functions embedded into the Operating System. If the OS did not include ways of hijacking a machine (documented or not), people couldn't write software that did it.
If the OS did not include ways for programs to hide themselves from the operator, people couldn't write software that did it.

Writing functionality like that into an OS is like building an unlocked door into a bank vault, and hoping no-one opens it simply because it's not labelled.

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Comment from Gabriel on 2010-01-14

2010-01-14T15:43:25Z

its sad we do not have more advanced means of catching these people. i think we should have an immidiate death sentence for anyone who has created a virus and distributed it. harsh? maybe. but tell that to all of my dead computers R.I.P

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Comment from Gregbaby on 2009-09-18

2009-09-18T17:46:49Z

I've been following the "hacking scene" since I was like 12 years old (I'm now 22), though I never bothered to learn any of that nonsense, I , being young, thought it was "cool" at the time, and I remember trawling hacking sites and downloading virii (intentionaly) off of various sites for "study". They were the days when hackers could cause mayhem with worms forwarded as love letters (Mellisa, you rememver right? :P), nowadays this scene has died down a lot, I agree with Leo 100%, these bas**ards are now profiting from viruses and adware that doesnt directly "harm" your pc, but it ruins their long term potential due to speed issues and lag etc. fortunatly i have a reasonable amount of knowledege to spot a scam a mile away, but there are a LOT of people who get sucked right into these ploys (most of my family lol) and spread the problem even further. It makes me mad to think these people earn money through deception. It's a shame there are no concrete laws to stop this kind of behaviour.

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Comment from Ken on 2007-09-04

2007-09-04T13:19:25Z

"Barb" said:
> When I was on Hotmail I had very few spam, now
> I have switched to gmail and I have a dozen or
> more spam each day. I wonder why?

There are several possibilities.

First, it could simply be the fact that there is a lot more spam now than there used to be.

Second, some ISPs silently discard anything that _they_ think is spam, and you never even see it. (Unfortunately, legitimate e-mail often gets silently thrown out as well, and you'll never know.)

It could also be that your new e-mail address is more likely hit by what is called a "dictionary attack". (This is what Leo meant by "spammers just try lots of common email names combined with known domains on the internet".)

My e-mail provider will _filter_ what it thinks is spam, and by default place it in another folder. I could have it simply discard it as well, but I know that automated filters do get the occasional "false positive", and I want the human element involved before trashing it.

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Comment from Leo A. Notenboom on 2007-09-03

2007-09-03T17:48:52Z

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Short answer: no, you may not. Content on this site is under Copyright.

HOWEVER, there are outlined in the terms and conditions some ways of doing so
that ARE allowed: http://ask-leo.com/terms.html#copyright

Thanks for asking first - that's appreciated.

Leo

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A comment on: Why do people make viruses?

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Comment from Leo's Fan on 2007-09-03

2007-09-03T08:29:45Z

Are we free to copy content from Leo's site?

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Comment from david parsons on 2007-08-31

2007-09-01T05:00:32Z

i find life very sad when all some people can do is cause trouble for fun or gain.lets hope we can one day rid our world of this scum.

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Comment from Barb on 2007-08-31

2007-09-01T02:49:01Z

When I was on Hotmail I had very few spam, now I have switched to gmail and I have a dozen or more spam each day.
I wonder why?

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A comment on: Why do people make viruses?

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