Why do People Create Computer Viruses

 passwords or credit card numbers and send it back to the virus creator. These types of viruses often use keylogging as a method of stealing information where it maintains a record of everything that is typed into the computer such as emails, passwords, home banking data, instant messenger chats etc..

The above mentioned methods also allows an attacker to gather an incredible amount of data about a person which can be used for identity theft purposes.


To Prove a Point, To Prove it Can Be Done, To Prove Ones Skill or For Revenge Purposes

A perfect example of this type of virus was the famous MS.Blaster virus (aka Lovesan) which infected hundreds of thousands of computers back in August 2003.This virus would cause the system to restart after 60 seconds and had two hidden messages written in its code:

One was “I just want to say LOVE YOU SAN!!” which is why the virus is sometimes called Lovesan, and the other message was “billy gates why do you make this possible ? Stop making money and fix your software!!”

It is believed that purpose of this virus was to prove how easily exploitable a Windows system is.


To Cripple a Computer or Network

Few viruses now days are intended to disable a computer because it stops viruses ability to spread to other computers. Computer crippling viruses still exist, but nowhere near as common as the viruses mentioned above. The worst type of computer crippling viruses were back in the days of the 486 computers where the virus would overwrite the Master Boot Record (MBR) of the computer which would often prevent the computer from starting up at all.


Unlike computer crippling viruses, network crippling viruses are all too common now days. Most viruses that are designed to launch a Denial of Service attack will cause a significant load on a computer network, often bringing it down completely.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

What is a Multipartite Virus

 A multipartite virus is a type of fast-acting malware that attacks a device's boot sector and executable files simultaneously. Multipartite viruses are often considered more problematic than traditional computer viruses due to their ability to spread in multiple ways. They are considered to be much more destructive than other viruses. Multipartite viruses infect computer systems multiple times, at varying times and in order to eradicate the virus it must be purged from the entire system. Failure to do so can result in the system being repeatedly re-infected if all parts of the virus are not eradicated.  The first reported instance of a multipartite virus was in 1989. Ghostball was the name of this particular virus and it targeted the executable files and boot sectors of the computers it infected. However, Ghostball wasn’t able to reach many victims as the internet was fairly new at the time it started spreading. Now with around half of the global population active online, mul...
Read more

What is the KLEZ virus?

 Klez is a worm that spreads via the Internet by attaching itself to mass-mailed emails using SMTP to pass itself along. The worm virus itself is a Windows PE EXE file of about 65Kb in size and is written in Microsoft Visual C++. The subject line of the email carrying the virus payload is randomly selected from a list of possible choices. The email message “From:” field will contain either one of the addresses found in a search of address books and files on the computer or an address taken from a list inside the virus body. When the virus was released, millions of email messages results and were sent around the world. This caused some messaging servers to fail and cripple internal company communications systems. Some claims were made that this virus caused billions of dollars of administrator’s and user’s time in dealing with all the errant messages, recovering failed systems and opportunities lost as a result of the failed communications. Those using GMS Anti-Virus were quickly pr...
Read more

Cryptolocker Virus Definition

 Cryptolocker is a malware threat that gained notoriety over the last years. It is a Trojan horse that infects your computer and then searches for files to encrypt. This includes anything on your hard drives and all connected media — for example, USB memory sticks or any shared network drives. In addition, the malware seeks out files and folders you store in the cloud. Only computers running a version of Windows are susceptible to Cryptolocker; the Trojan does not target Macs. Once your desktop or laptop is infected, files are "locked" using what's known as asymmetric encryption. This method relies on two "keys," one public and one private. Hackers encrypt your data using the public key, but it can only be decrypted using the unique private key they hold. The Cryptolocker virus will display warning screens indicating that your data will be destroyed if you do not pay a ransom to obtain the private key. Common Infection Methods and Risks The most common method of...
Read more