Author of malicious programs and purpose

Virus writing objects: 4 common types

Virus writers usually belong to one of four large groups: with disruptive ones divided into two categories, and better programmers can split into two other categories.

Breakers - level 1

Previously, most malware was written by young programmers: these young people often program programs to test their skills. Fortunately, most of these programs are not widely available - most such malware is destroyed when your hard drive is reformatted. Viruses like these are often not written for a specific purpose or a specific purpose but simply for the writer to assert themselves.

Breakers - level 2

The second largest group contributing to malware code writing is young people, usually students. They are people who are still learning programming, but have been able to have bold ideas to devote their skills to writing viruses. There are people who have chosen the types of computer-destroying exercises. Viruses written by members of this group are often very rudimentary and the code of these viruses may contain many errors.

However, the development of the Internet has provided new space and opportunities for these virus writers. With a huge number of sites, chat rooms and other resources spread everywhere, anyone can learn viral writing: by talking to experienced authors and downloading everything from the public. The tool builds as well as disguises malware to become malicious programs.

Professional objects

After these fledgling programmers develop. The objects that created these scripts continue to search for commercial applications to test their capabilities. This group of people maintains most of the secrets and dangers in so-called computer darkness: they create a network of professional and talented programmers who are formidable in writing and broadcasting virus scattering.

Professional virus writers often write new code designed to penetrate computers and networks; They study software and hardware vulnerabilities, use social engineering as initial ways to ensure their malicious works not only survive but are also widely available.

Virus researcher: Demonstrating malware authors

The fourth group is also the smallest group of virus writers and this group is quite special. These virus writers consider themselves to be researchers and they are often talented programmers who want to devote their skills to developing new methods for penetrating and injecting systems, fake antivirus programs, . They are among the first to infiltrate new operating systems and new hardware. However, these people do not write viruses for the purpose of making money but for research purposes. They did not widely disseminate the source code of the viruses that were written, but only discussed their innovations on Internet sources about virus writing.

All sounds seemingly innocent or even useful. However, if a virus maintains another virus and goes into new threats, it should be managed by many people to overcome it. This problem is not only caused by amateurs, who are not responsible for the research results and many of these proven viruses become quite serious threats when the virus researchers increase. access to them, the reason for this is that writing viruses can be a source of income for this group.

Why write virus?

Fool

The computer dark forces have realized that the money paid for Internet services such as access, emailing and web hosting, can provide many new opportunities for illegal actions. Virus writers of this type have created a series of Trojans intended to steal login information and passwords to increase free access to other users' Internet resources.

The first password-stealing Trojan appeared in 1997: the goal was to increase access to AOL. In 1998 such Trojans appeared to all other significant Internet service providers. Trojans that steal logs in data for dial-up ISPs, AOL and other Internet services are often written by many of whom only a small part is intended to support their Internet habits, or by people Do not accept Internet resources is a commercial service.

For a long time, this group of Trojans has formed a significant part of anti-virus companies worldwide. Today, the number of Trojans is decreasing partly because of reduced Internet access costs.

Computer games and software registration codes are also other targets for this form of crime. With this type of Trojan, Trojans can provide complete access to resources written for many people with limited financial resources. Some unlocking and hacking utilities are also written by so-called "freedom fighters," who claim that all information needs to be shared completely freely through the computer community. . However, this is still a form of copyright and intellectual property crime.

Organized crime group

The most dangerous virus writers are individual groups and individuals with high experience in this field. These objects can extract money directly from other users or use infected computers to make money in many ways, such as creating and selling spamming platforms or organizing DoS attacks with the goal of blackmail. .

Most serious outbreaks today are caused by professional virus writers who can organize settings to spread trojans to victim computers. This is done by using worms, linking to infected sites or other Trojans.

Bot networks

Currently, virus writers work for many spammers or sell their goods to buyers at the highest price. Today, a standard procedure for virus writers is to create bot networks, meaning that the bad computer network has been infected with malicious code. In the case of networks used as spamming platforms, Trojan proxy servers will infiltrate victim computers. The number of these networks can range from a thousand to dozens of thousands of infected computers. Virus writers will then sell these networks at the highest prices.

Such networks are often used as spamming platforms. Hackers can be used to make sure the network is run efficiently; Malware software is installed without the user's knowledge or consent, adware programs can be equipped to prevent detection and deletion, and anti-virus programs can be hacked. .

Financial increase

Part of spam and adware, professional virus writers also create Trojans that can be used to steal money from e-wallets, Pay Pal accounts, or directly from bank accounts on the Internet. The Trojans harvest information about the bank as well as the amount of payment from the internal computers or even from the servers of the companies and then forward it to another owner.

Crime of extortion

A third form of contemporary crime is extortion on the Internet. Often, virus writers create a network of deadly computers that can direct an organized DoS attack. Then they blackmail companies by threatening to attack DoS with the company's website system. The common goal is electronic archives, banking sites and websites of companies with direct online income.

Other malware

Virus writers and hackers also want adware, dialers, and utilities that forward browsers to pay-per-view sites and certain software functions. Such programs can benefit the 'underground computer world' forces, so it is very attractive to virus writers and hackers in ensuring that programs are not detected and updated on a regular basis.

Although the media can make young virus writers cause global computer infections, approximately 90% of malicious code is written by experts. After all, however, all four groups of virus writers are challenges to global computer security.