On Fri, 23 Apr 2004 18:17:06 -0000, (Dave Platt)
wrote:

In article ,
Arrow146 wrote:

Who writes VIRUS programs ?
Who makes a profit from it ?
snip

- Spamming ability. Quite a few of the more recent viruses, worms,
and trojan horses contain software which installs specialized
email-processing software and web/email/TCP proxy servers. A large
percentage (half or more, I've heard) of the spam flooding the
Internet is now being sent through home PCs on DSL and cable-modem
networks, which have been compromised by these viruses. Previous
spam-fighting efforts had succeeded in shutting down many of the
open email relays, and poorly-installed open proxy servers that the
spammers had been abusing, and it's widely believed that major
spam-gangs have commissioned virus-authors to implement these viral
mail relays. The motive, in this case, is profit: spammers can
flood millions of people with spam at almost no cost, and even a
handful of sales can earn them enough money to be worth the effort.

You missed revenge and or jealousy...The DOS attacks against specific
sites because they either do or say something the writer happens to
disagree with, or doesn't like.

Most viruses and worms are relatively simple and many have depended on
the gullibility of the user to actually run them. Links to malicious
sites from newsgroup postings...(See what ever star in the shower,
Go here for an interesting site) There must be users dumb enough to
click on these links. Then there are the "updates" to show up as if
they are real when in fact they are viruses, Trojans, and worms.
Popular of late is: The e-mail server will be down for a couple of
days, please click on the link to update your file so we can forward
your e-mail during the outage. Of course there were the Microsoft
Security updates where you clicked on a link that didn't go to the MS
site.

As far as money, there are the "We are making changes and need to
update your e-bay account (quite a number of businesses have been
listed). It has you click on a link and it *appears* as if you have
been taken to the proper site where they ask for your account name and
have your log in. Of course while at it you have to update your credit
card information as well.

"Some" viruses/worms/Trojans are quite sophisticated and even "call
home" to check the payload for the day, or week, or what ever. Some
"morph" or evolve. Some are capable of running as soon as you open
the mail and some e-mail will load information from malicious sites,
which is a good reason for not using HTML e-mail. Macros can make a
mess. Visual basic which is part of MS office apps can do virtually
anything on your machine.

Some can search your machine looking for account and financial
information, credit card numbers, SS#, ... and so on..
Some leave a keystroke logger which can be checked later for account
names and pass words.

I can't imagine not having virus protection AND a fire wall. I've set
here and watched a probe check all the ports on the machine and when
it couldn't get in it started over. OTOH no machine is invulnerable
when it's hooked to the net.

In one year I received over 250 viruses and worms. Although I haven't
received many in a long time, I received 5 yesterday in half an hour.
These are viruses that made it past the ISPs checking.

Roger Halstead (K8RI & ARRL life member)
(N833R, S# CD-2 Worlds oldest Debonair)
www.rogerhalstead.comRoger Halstead (K8RI & ARRL life member)
(N833R, S# CD-2 Worlds oldest Debonair)
www.rogerhalstead.com