Curious question for anyone who wants to help either confirm or quash this weird rumor I heard.

Someone told me recently that a lot of viruses are actually produced by Symantec in order to keep them in business. Anybody think there's any truth to that? Sounds like an urban legend more than anything, but I've heard of companies creating problems that they can create solutions for.

Mike

Someone told me recently that a lot of viruses are actually produced by Symantec in order to keep them in business. Anybody think there's any truth to that?

No, I do not. Most viruses are created by people out to prove a point, have an axe to grind, or are just plain malicious and want to cause as much damage as they can. These people brag about how many systems they can infect or take down. In the case of one of the worst, the kid in Germany was trying to correct a flaw in a MS patch.. it didn't work !!

I think this is a complete lie. The most Symantec does (that I know of) to sell out their product, besides regular old commercial advertising, is say "You are not protected against this rapidly spreading threat - virusNameHere" to unsubscribed users which makes some of them believe they have been infected, when in all truth they haven't but are only not protected by Symantec.
My one piece of real advice here is that when it comes to who's writing viruses, or where they are coming from (for example MySpace) don't believe the person telling you unless you trust them and they are at heart a computer nerd. Although this doesn't mean you can't be cautious. Be cautious everywhere you go with your computer.

Most malware programmers these days have financial goals behind them. I would argue that the 'fame' of creating a big virus isn't the driving force for todays crackers.

Here's the problem with the theory Mike:

In terms of pure distribution of product, Symantec is the king among anti-virus software creators.

What Microsoft has taught us, and now what Google is reteaching us, is that companies that reach the top are targeted for both justified and unjustified reasons. Some people will attack the flaws in the product; some will attack the product when compared to other similar, free, lesser-known products; and some (as in this case) will attack the business practices.

Quite often (again, as in this case), these people adopt the "tinfoil hat" approach because it's the easiest way to reach a sympathetic audience (or because in some cases, they actually believe their own BS.) The problem is that their statements generally have no evidence or basis point to support their theories. They're just theories.

Could they be right? Yeah, they could be. I could also be right when I say "Webmaster-Talk is secretly beaming the forum DB back to the Pentagon so that the CIA may monitor our activities and launch anti-terrorism campaigns against innocent webmasters."

Gonna stop using the board? I didn't think so.

Note: I don't like or use Symantec products. Quite frankly, I think they're terrible, becoming more and more bloated, and totally useless when compared to products such as AVG and Avast. But I'm not going to accuse them of something like this because there's nothing at all to back it up.

Hi Harper,
I too joining with LadynRed and Matumal, its completely no truth.
Nowadays the people creating more and more viruses only to get name from that.Whenever you see the source of viruses they detect from the crackers or some other people only not from any of the vendor.this is my opinion on this.

Chroder is right! Malware creators have realy good money today.

this will sound stupid maybe...

but when you think of it it is the perfect way to show their programing skill! it is the perfect CV. if you can create a virus or program which can casue alot of damage and get through every firewall its givin, then wouldnt the top companies want you to program for them? if you can make it, you can also stop it!

ill give you a example, about cheque fraud.
if anyone has seen the film catch me if you can.
It is a true story, about a kid who got into cheque fraud etc. he was the best. stole MILLIONS. and was evertunally caught after years and put in jail for 20 years or somin but!, because he was so good at it after 4 years of the guy who caught him. got him out and he had to serve the remander of his sentence working for te FBI doing cheque fraud.
also he designed systems etc for banks and the like to prevent cheque fraud and they pay him millions and he is now a millionnaire.

some would say it was worth it.

Dan

Viruses are fairly easy to code Dan. Most consist of less that 500 lines.
Some criminals are clever people, Scammers and virus writers are not though.

what langauges can virus be written in, and how would you go about making one?
a simple one like which any thing can easily remove...

dan

They are usually written in C, Though any language can be used, Even PHP.
A virus would be any code that can propogate on it's own. They usuallly spread by email or an exploit then use the host machine to send more emails or scan for more vulenerable machines to exploit.

Most people with even minimal knowledge of C could put one together in a few hours.

could anyone provide the source code of a simple virus?
(of course i would never think of makeing one with it......................)

Dan

Somebody said it already: viruses today are for profit. Mostly they're the "or else" part of a ransom threat. This is what a lot of the in depth news has to say, so I guess it depends on how much you trust that.

For Dan's Galaxy, no one is going to post source code to a virus here - that would be HIGHLY unethical. Probably no one here has given much thought to how to build one.

Just like bacteria, a virus isn't always bad. Antibiotics can kill helpful bacteria in the stomach, and you should eat yogurt when taking them so you don't kill out all the bacteria that you need.

They're doing research into ways that computer viruses can be helpful. Think about the definition - there's nothing inherently bad or "mal" about a virus. It's just a program that copies itself. This idea might be able to help with all sorts of network issues, from patching all the computers, to checking security issues, and really just about anything.

Sort of like how the automatic updates mean no one has been to the Windows Update site in years, except the people who really care a lot about being selective. For most of us, the computer just saves necessary busy-work.

I know i very much doubted anyone would.

I like the idea about using viruses to fix computers, could be quite a cool idea, install it into one pc and with a couple of days the who organisation would be upgraded.

I supose the only reason that wouldnt work, is that firewalls would reject it because of its code.

Dan

That and I think they still need to work out how to turn it off. Cancer is when cells just keep on growing and multiplying like rabbits. You'd think cell growth would be a good thing, but when a lump on your stomach is squeezing your lungs, suddenly it's bad and dangerous.

So when all the patches are applied, the viruses need to just go away, or "die off," instead of roaming around the network looking for more work to do, and probably clogging bandwidth.

I heard most people in the 1990s used "kits" to write viruses. Basically software where they would check off all the behaviors they wanted their new virus to have, and the software would go and write the actual virus code. If that's true, then there really doesn't need to be any skill involved at all, and it doesn't matter what programming language. If you're really curious, you could probably find one of these.

The guy who wrote the Love Letter virus used "Visual Basic" inside of Word. But then all of the Office applications store hidden data in documents, and it didn't take long to catch the guy. He got famous, but he also got free rent in prison.

So I'm really not sure what would prompt such a change, from viruses being created sort of "in general" to for profit? It would make sense if we had more, now, for profit, but why did the old ones go away?

Has anyone actually forund a virus making kit on the internet?? it seems like people only talk of them...

i would like to find out out of interest, no worries ur all safe! lol more likely it would infect myself.

Dan

Originally Posted by dansgalaxy

ill give you a example, about cheque fraud.
if anyone has seen the film catch me if you can.
It is a true story, about a kid who got into cheque fraud etc. he was the best. stole MILLIONS. and was evertunally caught after years and put in jail for 20 years or somin but!, because he was so good at it after 4 years of the guy who caught him. got him out and he had to serve the remander of his sentence working for te FBI doing cheque fraud.
also he designed systems etc for banks and the like to prevent cheque fraud and they pay him millions and he is now a millionnaire.

some would say it was worth it.

Dan

That example sure sounds like urban legend or something out of hollywood.
It is such a waste of brain power to waste your time creating a virus. If someone is good at coding there are plenty of other ways to 'prove' it.

Originally Posted by LadynRed

No, I do not. Most viruses are created by people out to prove a point, have an axe to grind, or are just plain malicious and want to cause as much damage as they can. These people brag about how many systems they can infect or take down. In the case of one of the worst, the kid in Germany was trying to correct a flaw in a MS patch.. it didn't work !!

Actually most virus writers make viruses for exploration and knowledge and for learning. Its just the occasional blackhat that does it for the sake of doing it. And yes i have heard stories about anti-virus companies making virus's and being the first to patch them because of that.

Originally Posted by DotHQ

That example sure sounds like urban legend or something out of hollywood.
It is such a waste of brain power to waste your time creating a virus. If someone is good at coding there are plenty of other ways to 'prove' it.

Actually being able to create something that exploits a bug is proves you are obviously a good coder (except if you use other peoples exploits ect) And shows you know the ins and outs of a system. Creating a program that doesn't exploit something is still good. But in my world being able to create something that exploits a bug is very good. Especially if it goes undetected.

Originally Posted by Pwnz_You

Actually being able to create something that exploits a bug is proves you are obviously a good coder (except if you use other peoples exploits ect) And shows you know the ins and outs of a system. Creating a program that doesn't exploit something is still good. But in my world being able to create something that exploits a bug is very good. Especially if it goes undetected.

You sound like an apologist for digital crime and thuggery.