Catching a Virus Writer

Catching a Virus Writer
Kelly Martin, 2004-06-02

With the consumer WiFi explosion, launching a virus into the wild has never been easier and more anonymous than it is today.

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Catching a Virus Writer 2004-06-03
Anonymous (1 replies)

And I bet you don't think the spammers already know this? They have been doing this for a while now. Spammers are a bigger problem then a virus writer......

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Catching a Virus Writer 2004-06-08
Roger

Actually, several of the latest outbreaks (of worms, actually, but the difference is irrelevant from this point of view) appear to have been created *BY* spammers, for the purpose of creating tens of thousands of open mail relays to forward their filth....

What with DDoS, spam, and insecure APs, ...

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Virus companies hire virus writers 2004-06-04
Me (2 replies)

Without viruses, symantec, MCafee, Trend, etc. would all be out of business. They must be hiring these guys to write and propagate viruses....

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Virus companies *use* virus writers 2004-06-04
Almost Anonymous (1 replies)

There aren't any compelling reason for companies to hire virus writers, at least not knowingly.
There is however a strong business dependency on virus writers continuously releasing new code for which end-users positively must have the companies latest upgrade.
So it could be argued that anti-viru...

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Virus companies *use* virus writers 2004-06-07
Anonymous

Society has varying needs - as do people.

Companies who can forsee the market needs and is flexible enough to change their business plan to accomodate them - will survive.

Right now there is a need for security and security companies will make large sums of money - when the demand lowers - tho...

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Virus companies hire virus writers 2004-06-07
Hardly Anonymous (1 replies)

SecurityFocus is owned by Symantec Corp. It?s logical to assume the author, Kelly Martin, is on Symantec?s payroll, it?s not in Mr. Martin?s best interest to mention the possibility that the big anti-virus/security services conglomerates may have a hand in propagating malicious code throughout the i...

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Virus companies vs the thin red line 2004-06-09
Almost Anonymous

Hehe. Another "truth through survey" idea. Brilliant.

Seriously, there's a thin red yet invisible line in there somewhere.
Not so far from that line, you find AV employees keeping in touch with less than reputable individuals, on IRC or somewhere else. That isn't necessarily a bad thing, as it a...

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Catching a Virus Writer 2004-06-04
Anonymous

Well written article Kelly. Thanks for the heads up....

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wifi and a good time was had by all 2004-06-05
x (4 replies)

I think your article was wrongfully labeled, as it is really about anonymity via wifi, not about virus release. When is the last time you even saw a virus in person?? (unless you mean worm, which is very different)

I've been using long-range wifi techniques pointing into metro areas for several ...

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wifi and a good time was had by all 2004-06-08
RogueClient (1 replies)

"However, skilled folks like myself not only already know of this technique, but we also know enough to use it in a proper way that will keep us from ever being identified."

LOL!

I thought that rant would never end!

It's always amusing when people try to set themselves up as 1337 hax0rs - t...

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wifi and a good time was had by all 2004-06-09
Oxfordshire goths

We, the clan of net.goths from Oxfordshire, do hereby DISOWN this miscreant known as rogueclient, for his egregious use of the word "LOL" in a public forum and exiguous use of technical content. His brilliant and obviously mature and wise masterminding of "Project Mayhem" (http://www.livejournal.co...

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wifi and a good time was had by all 2004-06-08
R0V3N (1 replies)

x your a lamer. pretty soon your mom will find the art of deception book tucked under your bed and cancel your aol account. then the world will be safe from your rath....

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attacks on the poster "x" 2004-06-09
junctionboxmodeming

Facinating that securityfocus let such idiotic responses through.

If you two jealous spammers who insulted x were paying attention to the content instead of getting tripped up in your jealousy because the triggerword "skill" was spoken, then you might have learned something. Did you two even kno...

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wifi and a good time was had by all 2004-06-09
s0cra735

Remember x the really tough thing about humility is you can't brag about it....

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wifi and a good time was had by all 2004-06-09
Definitly Anonymous

>>all you are doing is helping the lame spammers and miscreants catch up with the rest of us.<<

Dude, if only one spammer gets aware of this how long you think it will take until all others will know this too? I am quite sure that the big spam operations (and they are only a few) knew this fact s...

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Catching a Virus Writer [12 Monkeys scenario] 2004-06-07
Anonymous

Imagine the 12 Monkeys film (with Bruce Willis). Lauching a computer virus from an airport's hot-spot with people flying to the five continents would be "interresting" (how does this influence the virus propagation ?)...

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Catching a Virus Writer 2004-06-07
jb (2 replies)

Surely it could be easy to get majority of the ones that use irc / icq etc to contact the relavent makers. It annoys me that all these "zombie pc's" they tend to "phone home" this information seems not provided to authorities for pursue.

Surely the antivirus makers have a vested interest for all...

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Catching a Virus Writer 2004-06-08
Roger

> I have found irc bots on peoples computers and it really is not that heard to find out where they are accessing eg Connects to a predefined IRC channel, using its own IRC client, and listens for the commands from the attacker. I mean get real.. just get on the network.

Problem is that a lot of...

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Catching a Virus Writer 2004-06-09
Anonymous

Unfortunately one has to say. Not to long ago we had a PC infected with a worm that phoned home to a particular IRC Server, specific channel (glad that IRC uses clear text so i could sniff the password as well).
I logged on to the channel, waited as everything was quite. Suddenly moderator comes in...

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Catching a Virus Writer 2004-06-07
frederik

Nice work!
This is as true as said, but I don't belive in a conspiracy between viruswriters and antivirus companies.
The solution? back to cable, up with security!
regards...

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Catching a Virus Writer, recruting distributors 2004-06-10
Anonymous (1 replies)

i found it a nice article and it pointed to some important problems.
the ease that connects computers to wifi is a danger in itself. clueless people are offering there system for malware distribution (just remember the exploid for sasser). the programm
can keep quit for a few days and start then. ...

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Catching a Virus Writer, recruting distributors 2004-06-14
Anonymous

or "May You Live in Interesting Times"

http://www.noblenet.org/reference/inter.htm...

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Creating a Virus Writer 2007-08-21
Anonymous

We need some super heros to wire a virus to wipe out Mr Gates before his entourage of crappy PC's with spammers, vulnerable machines and viruses brings the net to a screaming halt. The biggest Telco in Australia Telstra get 30 million email viruses a day equivalent to 21gb of garbage, it is almost a...

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