Gaming Why do people make viruses???

[Originality]

Equally one of the big things these days are virus toolkits that allow any skiddy to play proper virus creator (or at least have the impact of one- until the toolkit creator uses a hidden option and takes control of "their works").

That's what I used in my high school days some 8-9 years ago - a toolkit where I could decode the plethora of virii in the school networks and create my own custom works. I had quite a collection by the time I got hacked and lost it all. Karma catches up to all, although at least I never did anything malicious.

 

[Thoob]

To show they can.

 

[SifJar]

Cause some people are jerks. Some do it for money, others do it for fun, occasionally some may do it for fame, or perhaps to spread a political or other cause (filling computers with manifestos or propaganda or whatever).

 

[DeMoN]

It's mainly to steal personal info in order to carry out an identity fraud.
Of course, there are some people who only try to destroy computers, probably to increase the size of their e-peen, or to test out their computer programming skills.
Others actually work for the anti-virus companies, because if no one made viruses then those companies would be bankrupt.

 

[jalaneme]

Personally, I think anyone who purposely creates any type of virus, whether it be to destroy data or to steal personal info, should be treated as an international terrorist and dealt with accordingly.

excatly, i hate all people who make those horrible virus programs if i had the chance i would punch them in the face very hard, dam scum, nothing better to do than to vandalise other peoples property!

 

[Prime_Zero]

Im gonna agree with most of the posts above, but there is one and as far as I can tell only one upside to jerks, and people who wanted to make money by making viruses. And that would be anti virus programs, we might not have them today other wise.

Why is that a good thing? cause in some ways it makes our computers stronger, so that one day should we survive long enough to travel into outer space. And when we meet than go to war with aliens for (insert reason here) they would be able to hack our computers so easily. Like in that one episode of stargate atlantis when the wraith uploaded a virus into there ship that took over it.

 

[alidsl]

For money, you can create viruses that control computers and you can sell them to other people

 

[_Chaz_]

People who want to gain satisfaction (financial or emotional) at the expense of others make viruses as a means to accomplish this task.

I also agree that anyone who does so should be labeled as a terrorist and dealt with accordingly.

 

[Law]

Why is that a good thing? cause in some ways it makes our computers stronger

ANTI-VIRUSES

LIKE STEROIDS FOR YOUR SILICON

 

[XLarge]

for the lulz of course, to cause chaos in the world of computers

 

[Eighteen]

Yeah >_:3.
....Stupid pr0n sites >:3.....

 

[metamaster]

For all we know, anti-virus companies make viruses so that their software sells lol. They know exactly what their software detects before releasing a new version...

 

[SifJar]

Im gonna agree with most of the posts above, but there is one and as far as I can tell only one upside to jerks, and people who wanted to make money by making viruses. And that would be anti virus programs, we might not have them today other wise.

Why is that a good thing? cause in some ways it makes our computers stronger, so that one day should we survive long enough to travel into outer space. And when we meet than go to war with aliens for (insert reason here) they would be able to hack our computers so easily. Like in that one episode of stargate atlantis when the wraith uploaded a virus into there ship that took over it.

If there were no viruses, we wouldn't need anti-virus, slowing down our computers, and cheaper computers would run faster.

 

[BlueStar]

The first viruses were basically proof of concept, wanting to show off your programming skills and get your name out there. Some would just display a message or see how far they could spead, the more malicious ones would sometimes be justified as a method of purging from the computer scene casual users who didn't know enough to protect themselves. Nowadays there are hardly any traditional viruses, most of them are more accurately described as either worms or trojans and the primary driving force is money. That usualyl either means infecting your PC with spyware to bombard you with adverts, sometimes for 'anti-virus' software to remove the infection (think of it as a digital protection racket), or flat out stealing. And there's lots of stuff to steal - your address book for spam sending, your bank details, or simply your PC processing power and network connection. A lot of worms are out there capturing machines to form a botnet to either sell or use for their own aims. Loads of infected zombie machines waiting to do someone's bidding, either acting as spam bots or DDoSing a company who they can then try to hold to ransom.

 

[Originality]

On the plus side, "zombie machines" are becoming far less common because ISPs are actually taking action to help prevent botnets from launching spam/DDoS attacks. They've still got a long way to go before they're actually useful, but it's at least making things harder for the less adept hackers out there.

It should also be noted that people who make virii are not cyber-terrorists. Only the people who use them for malicious intents are cyber-terrorists, although I do agree that people who make malicious virii should still be punished too - just not as cyber-terrorists.