Computersight -

The typical caricature of a virus writer is a teenage nerd with no friends who has something to prove. In reality this is not too far from the truth as guys like this produce a number of viruses and other malicious software.

The term ‘malware’ is a fairly recent catch-all definition encompassing viruses, trojan horse programs, worms, spyware and adware. It is an acronym of MALicious softWARE – any computer program designed to cause harm your computer data or your personal privacy.

Virus programmers can be divided into two main categories – the ‘digital vandal’ who does it for fun and the professional malware programmer who does it for commercial gain.

Digital Vandals

These are typically young men in their teens and early twenties who are learning programming and get some kind of buzz out of writing malicious software. They are probably members of shady internet forums dedicated to virus programming where they can share ideas, download virus writing toolkits and learn from more experienced programmers. Usually any software produced by inexperienced programmers has bugs in it and operates unpredictably. The same is true of viruses they write – often they do not operate exactly as the programmer intended because of errors and bugs. Sometimes this means that they are not quite as destructive as intended, which is no bad thing, but there is also a chance of them being even more destructive.

Why do the digital vandals do what they do? Usually to earn some kind of recognition from their peers. They measure each other as to how well their creations can avoid detection, how fast they can spread and how many millions of dollars worth of damage they can do.

Professional Programmers

These are the most dangerous and secretive group of programmers. Not only are they experienced programmers who can produce software free from bugs, but they spend time studying vulnerabilities in operating systems and application software so that they can write code to exploit them. They are also often experts in psychology of computer users, studying patterns and habits. They make it their business to know what sort of link a user is most likely to click and devise other ways of concealing their malicious software as something benign.

Like the amateur ‘digital vandals’ their goals are to produce devastating programs that can evade detection for as long as possible and spread to as many users as possible. The difference is that the professional virus writer can not only produce software that does this well, but can also operate reliably. This enables the most highly skilled to command top rates when selling their services.

So what organisations pay these programmers for their services? There are several applications:

1. Spam advertising relies heavily on large scale email campaigns. This is because a very low percentage of recipients respond to the spam. The only way for the ’spamonomics’ to work is if the numbers of emails sent are enormous, or if they are targeted intelligently. A popular mechanism is to generate a ‘botnet’ of zombie computers which, at the command of their master, will send mass emails to everyone in their email address books. The initial infection is usually through a trojan horse program, which masquerades as something useful. Once the user inadvertently downloads the trojan it opens a backdoor enabling the hacker to control that computer as part of a botnet. The number of zombie computers in a botnet varies between a few thousand to tens of thousands. That is a lot of processing power to send millions of spam email messages in a very short space of time. Also, if the malware is intelligent enough, it can lift the entries from each infected computer’s address book and customise the spam to look like a legitimate email from that user to friends, family and business contacts. These types of emails are more likely to generate a positive response from the target than the anonymous randomly targeted spam. Skilled programmers who can produce the trojan programs, distribute them effectively and control the zombie networks are the ones who can command top rates for this kind of work.

2. Fraud. This is the digital version of organised crime. It is a blatant way of stealing usernames, passwords and account details for Paypal accounts and online bank accounts. It can also be used to steal credit card details from online shoppers. The worst type of spyware will log keystrokes and mouse clicks and send the information to the hacker without the computer user knowing about it. A professional virus write who can do this kind of hacking will always find people willing to buy this information.

3. Advertising. This is a huge market with a lot of money to be made by legitimate as well as foul means. The professional virus writer comes into the picture where advertising has to be targeted. This can be accomplished by spyware or adware.

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  • Spyware used for advertising purposes collects information about internet browsing habits from the target computer and sends it anonymously to the hacker. Rather than stealing information as in the case of spyware used for fraud the hacker collects this information from a number of infected computers and uses it to build a huge database. This can be used to analyse personal profiles and target future advertising campaigns intelligently.

  • Adware is a general term used to describe any piece of software that contains advertising material. Some of it is benign – a common example is trial versions of legitimate programs that display adverts or nag screens to prompt users to purchase the full version. This type can be annoying but is otherwise harmless. Other adware is more malicious and can hijack web browsers to divert to particular sites or display popup screens with advertising.

The Future of Malicious Software

EveIn in a global downturn, skilled virus writers will never be out of employment. There will always be a demand for their skills, particularly as antivirus software vendors are doing a better job than ever before at keeping ahead of the game and eliminating new malware threats almost as soon as they are detected. A lot of computer users are not aware of the magnitude of the threats facing them as they use the Internet and email and leave themselves wide open to attack. This is either because they do not use any security software whatsoever, or else they rely on the false sense of security given to them by an ineffective antivirus program that will not protect them against serious digital threats.

Most viruses and other malware programs are targeted at Windows PCs as these have made up the majority of computer users and have had security vulnerabilities that can be exploited. Some of the professional virus writers are now turning their attention to non-Windows platforms such as Mac OS X, Linux and mobile devices. These have not been targeted on any large scale until recently because the numbers have been too small to be worthwhile. The reason they are being targeted now is that they are becoming more popular, the numbers are increasing and most users do not think that they need any security software.

Windows PCs are still going to account for the largest number of malware attacks for some time to come. As all of us keep more of our lives on our computers than ever before – photographs, music, video, documents, financial information, emails and so on – we stand to lose more than ever before if we are infected with malware. Anyone who values their data and personal privacy should get the best security software possible for their computer and keep it regularly updated.