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Re: Virus author profiling

From: Sorin Mustaca <sorin.mustaca(at)ravantivirus.com>
Date: Fri Mar 21 2003 - 04:39:14 EST

Hi everybody,
I read the article specified below and since I am in the same age range (I am 24 years old) and working from age of 19 with viruses (more or less) I decided to
make this post.

I am working WITH viruses, because for the last four years I am developing anti virus software ! ( NOT viruses, I want this to be very clear ! )
Before that, I was administrator of a few networks (during faculty and high school) and I have installed a lot of anti virus programs.

I want to make some comments on Mr. Hruska's sayings (some of them were said on the list, more or less):

"They have a chronic lack of girlfriends, are usually socially inadequate and are drawn compulsively to write self-replicating codes. It's a form of digital graffiti to them,

Hello ???? Wake up mr. Hruska !!!!
The _real_ problem of malware writers is not "chronic lack of girlfriends" (makes me laugh even when I read it :-D :-D ) but the lack of information .
During the 5 years of faculty (Computer Science) I met a lot of guys(yes, guys, not girls), with and without girlfriends, that wrote malwares (not necessarily viruses).
Some of them told me that their desire "write self-replicating codes" was only because they want to see what happens and because they can. Yes, this is strange, but never underestimate the intelligence and imagination of a young man which is boring every day at school or at home ... ;-)

"With more and more new OS (operating system) versions, there will be more new forms of viruses, as every single software or OS will carry new features, and new executables that can be carriers of the infection," " [...] new platforms like Microsoft Corp's Windows 2000 (news <http://rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/nm/tc_nm/inlinks/*http://rd.yahoo.com/DailyNews/manual/*http://search.news.yahoo.com/search/news?p=%22Windows%202000%22&c=&n=20&yn=c&c=news&cs=nw> - web sites
<http://rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/nm/tc_nm/inlinks/*http://rd.yahoo.com/DailyNews/manual/*http://search.yahoo.com/search?p=Windows+2000>) and Windows XP (news
<http://rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/nm/tc_nm/inlinks/*http://rd.yahoo.com/DailyNews/manual/*http://search.news.yahoo.com/search/news?p=%22Windows%20XP%22&c=&n=20&yn=c&c=news&cs=nw> - web sites
<http://rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/nm/tc_nm/inlinks/*http://rd.yahoo.com/DailyNews/manual/*http://search.yahoo.com/bin/search?cs=nw&p=Windows%20XP>) than they did in the older DOS or Windows 3.1 ..."

True, but this is why we exist ! We develop anti virus software because we want to fix these problems.
The only thing people have to do is put an anti virus program on their computer, and update it. Virus writers and vulnerabilities will always exist !
I am also concerned of mr. Hruska's lack of information (quote 2): There are malwares in Unix-es too ... Yes, I agree that they do not spread in the same way Windows viruses do , but they exist and will be more and more dangerous with Linux's expansion in Desktop market !!!!

Do you need help?

In conclusion, I want to say that the biggest problem is the absence of information and/or the misinformation on this field. If somebody will teach those 14-34 young man (and women) about viruses (not how to write them) the world will be better ! I bet on this and I'm going to prove it ! Stay tuned.

PS: Nice cartoons Harlan. ;-)

>I caught this article this morning:

-- 
*Sorin Mustaca*
Software Engineer
RAV AntiVirus Division
www.RAVantivirus.com <
http://www.RAVantivirus.com>
Sorin.Mustaca@ravantivirus.com

Received on Fri Mar 21 13:40:56 2003

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