On Mon, 22 Apr 1996, Dermot Tynan wrote:
> Bruce Marshall wrote:
> > When you look at the
> > personality of the 'good' hackers you typically see that they are
> > inquisitive in nature, enjoy challenges and learning about the
> > innerworkings of just about anything.
> From what I've gleaned from virus circles, this doesn't always appear
> to be the case.
Wait a minute.. How did we get from hackers to virus writers? These
are typically two different classes of people.
> A lot of the virus 'writers' are simply permuting an
> earlier virus so that it can slip under the net of virus scanners.
Sadly, this is true. Most virus writers are more interested in making an
'unscannable' virus rather than creating an original and innovative one. This
can be as easy as taking an existing virus, PKLiting it and removing the
PKLite header.
> With the advent of things like VCL and MtE (virus creation tools),
> it is easier for someone without the qualities listed above to create
> something truly destructive and hard to detect.
VCL and most other virus toolkits are typically VERY easy to detect.
McAfee, TBAV and the like had their generic signatures added to their
scan strings very shortly after they were released.
> Not from a traditional
> motivation, but from a motivation that it's cool. "My virus wrecked
> systems on four continents". That sort of thing. We'll probably see
> these people move into Internet circles next.
Probably? Where have you been? These people have been on the
Internet since before RTM Jr. decided to 'share' his worm with the
world.
As for destructiveness, it unfortunately will always exist. These
people have a similiar psychological makeup as the individuals who go
around shooting out windows with their BB guns. They have no honor and no
talent. Eventually, they will either realize what idiots they are and
grow up or they will continue to be abhored by the rest of society.
> By the way, does anyone
> know if there are any NT viruses (yet!)??
I believe there are a few. NT, like other multi-user based operating
systems make it harder for viruses to survive due to their security based
file systems. However, the chance of infection isn't eliminated, just
reduced.
Bruce Marshall
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