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[PkGamer]

So malware.We all know what that is.Viruses, Trojans, Bots, Worms etc.But how many of use excatly stopped to thing why these things are created in the first place?
Well except when they steal creditcard details.

[kaijyuu]

Sociopathic amusement.

[10ebbor10]

The majority of malware is created for monetary gain, either injection of advertisement (Pretty effective on those who don't know how to get rid of it) , phishing for information, holding your computer hostage or to create a botnet.

Malware is seldom created because people like being evil. Also, governmental malware.

[DarkArtemisFowl]

What he said basically. The majority is indeed created for getting money, by infecting machines with spamware, virsuses, or other such things to get them to watch advertisements that get paid by companies.

Some people do use malware for the kick of it. Bunch of losers in my opinion, if you have nothing better to do than ruin other peoples' web experiences, you seriously need to reflect on your life.

[RedKing]

Also just "hey, I wonder if I could do X....."

My coding skills weren't up to the task, but at one point I conceptually tried to develop a botnet some years before they became a thing. Not to use it, just to see if it could be done. That's how a lot of the early viruses started.

[LordSlowpoke]

for currency, for shits and giggles, to bring attention to a flaw in security, for surveillance

i got double triple quadruple ninjad while looking for an example of "to play music randomly" since i remembered that mcafee(?) had a database of viruses with symptoms listed and that's not there anymore. oh well it exists

[miauw62]

Most malware nowadays is created to gather info, redirect webpages or encrypt your files (or pretend to encrypt your files) and then demand money. Monetary gain.

As you go further back in time, you get virusses that were made for shits and giggles and to show off SKILL or for other non-monetary non-malicious reasons. Techno, Cascade, Memorial, LoveLetter, the list goes on.

Then there's these virusses that don't really have a reason to exist. CIH, Bumerang, LoveLetter, etc. These could be grouped into the above category, tough, since it's certainly not for monetary gain.

Educate yourself.

Some people do use malware for the kick of it. Bunch of losers in my opinion, if you have nothing better to do than ruin other peoples' web experiences, you seriously need to reflect on your life.

Doesn't look pathetic to me.

[ChairmanPoo]

[Tellemurius]

Original DOS/98 malware were designed to wreck shit cause you really pissed someone off. My favorite ones were the BIOS hijack which just plain kills the motherboard and the always fun write a bunch of zeros to format your hard drive. Nowadays its just plain scams and ransoms, nothing creative anymore.

[miauw62]

CIH only worked on a few BIOSs. That said, the BIOS isn't that secure, either.

And CIH was one-upped by Bumerang.

[LordSlowpoke]

CIH only worked on a few BIOSs. That said, the BIOS isn't that secure, either.

And CIH was one-upped by Bumerang.

can we start an electronics company though?

i'm sure that between the thousands of bay12ers that would inevitably flock to this business venture we'd have one or two people who know their shit

[miauw62]

All I know about malware I know from the internet. It's quite interesting stuff, really.

[misko27]

Monetary gain, amusement, hatred of people, and, I would assume that at least ONE virus was somehow made by accident.

You can be your own virus if you just start angrily pressing random things and spamming a control panel. I remember when I was doing a bit of research on the subject, the person had names for all the different things, but for this he put as the title "Rage of the Almighty Idiot".


I imagine most are created for monetary gain. They're the only ones I see anyway, although I did get one that converted all file types to notepad.

[Frumple]

... to notepad? Like... it actually turned them all into notepad.exe, complete with proper filesize and functionality? Because that'd honestly be kinda' awesome to hear about.

Or do you mean into .txt?

[misko27]

... to notepad? Like... it actually turned them all into notepad.exe, complete with proper filesize and functionality? Because that'd honestly be kinda' awesome to hear about.

Or do you mean into .txt?

The extension, fortunately.