“Why do people create computer viruses?”
In December we sent an e-mail to clients warning of a virus threat. We said it was delivered under the guise of a Christmas e-card greeting from a friend. We received a ‘thank you’ from a number of people but others e-mailed to say this was a hoax.
Our source was reliable, although we were aware there are many hoaxes doing the rounds similar to this one. We came to the conclusion that perhaps this is a method that has been used before, but the threat is real for those who may not be aware.
It is worth remembering that when it comes to computer security that ‘Paranoia does pay!’ There are hundreds of thousands of viruses designed for different objectives. Most of them fall under the following categories:
To take control of a computer and use it for specific tasks - The most common type is a Trojan. These are usually downloaded unknowingly; mistaking the file is something else, such as a file sent from an instant messenger friend or email attachment.
Once the computer is infected (known as a zombie computer), the Trojan joins some sort of a private chat channel and awaits instructions from its “Zombie Master”. This Zombie Master gathers thousands of infected machines (referred to as a botnet) and uses them to mount attacks on web servers. The Zombie Master may want to do this to bring down a rival website, a figurehead website (number10.gov.uk) or it may be part of an extortion plan. “Send me £10,000 or your website will be offline over Christmas”.
To generate money - These types of virus often masquerade as free spyware or virus removal tools (rogueware). Once ran, these fake applications “scan” your computer and say it found some viruses (even if there aren’t any) and in order to remove them, you must pay for the full version of the application.
To steal sensitive information - These types of viruses can ‘sniff’ the traffic going in or out of a computer for interesting information such as passwords or credit card numbers and the data is used to steal your identity.