Are Viruses etc Personal?

Saida.M · (#1 (**permalink**))

I feel as though it is especially when it's MY machine and My work that is affected!

So who the hell are these people doing these inane things? What the hell do get out of attacking ME!:X

umbrarchist · (#2 (**permalink**))

For the people who write them it's about proving how smart the are.

For people who deliberately spread them it is a form of vandalism.

It's nothing personal.

I keep my main machine offline. I am typing this on my 1.3GHz junker. If I hve to low level format the drive and reinstall to get rid of a virus it's no big deal.

Of course I wouldn't be surprised if some companies that sell anti-virus software have a back room operation where they write viruses. I once saw an ad for a CD with code for virus software.

I think Macro$cam is more to blame for this than anyone else. They hide info about their operating system so it beomes a challenge to some people to figure out what others don't know then they exploit it as they see fit.

Of course users are known as lusers in some circles.

umbra

Hrunopi · (#3 (**permalink**))

Well actually...

You have to realize something of particular importance about what YOU mean when YOU refer to a computer virus-There really is no such thing anymore, which is why so many machines are getting infected and especially why so many "viruses" are emerging these days.

You see, twenty or thirty years ago, a virus probably would not even be considered such with the exception of its characteristics-how it behaved. These programs were REAL MACHINE LEVEL CODED PROGRAMS written by REAL PROGRAMMERS IN MACHINE CODE. They were not designed to destroy anyone's machine, nor act maliciously-they were designed to manipulate CPU registers and use to evaluate what a computer system would do under specific conditions, or if forced to behave in a certain manner.

These kinds of programs are rarely, if at all ever written any more. Most of the so called 'viruses' out here now are crappy snippets of code segment borrowed from other coders and ported into other languages, things like trojans (which are not real viruses) and the bulk of which is largely spyware. Only occasionally is there ever a really nasty worm threat. These things are written by wannabe hackers who've learned a little bit about programming and want to make thier mark on- well you, by letting the coding community know that they can put together anything that can wreak havock on a machine.

Real viruses are written by real programmers who otherwise do not intend to do harm to anyone, except that what they produce is ofr all intent and purpose potentially harmful. These are folks who spend most of thier time writing device drivers, sockets, shells, loaders and real heavy-duty stuff that application coders would be very sloppy about.

So no its not personal-but then again it is.

Backatya · (#4 (**permalink**))

Hrunopi wrote:

Quote:

Well actually...

You have to realize something of particular importance about what YOU mean when YOU refer to a computer virus-There really is no such thing anymore, which is why so many machines are getting infected and especially why so many "viruses" are emerging these days.

You see, twenty or thirty years ago, a virus probably would not even be considered such with the exception of its characteristics-how it behaved. These programs were REAL MACHINE LEVEL CODED PROGRAMS written by REAL PROGRAMMERS IN MACHINE CODE. They were not designed to destroy anyone's machine, nor act maliciously-they were designed to manipulate CPU registers and use to evaluate what a computer system would do under specific conditions, or if forced to behave in a certain manner.

These kinds of programs are rarely, if at all ever written any more. Most of the so called 'viruses' out here now are crappy snippets of code segment borrowed from other coders and ported into other languages, things like trojans (which are not real viruses) and the bulk of which is largely spyware. Only occasionally is there ever a really nasty worm threat. These things are written by wannabe hackers who've learned a little bit about programming and want to make thier mark on- well you, by letting the coding community know that they can put together anything that can wreak havock on a machine.

Real viruses are written by real programmers who otherwise do not intend to do harm to anyone, except that what they produce is ofr all intent and purpose potentially harmful. These are folks who spend most of thier time writing device drivers, sockets, shells, loaders and real heavy-duty stuff that application coders would be very sloppy about.

So no its not personal-but then again it is.

Man, I don't know about anyone else, but that made absolutely no sense to me.

As long as I can find the 'on' button that's hi tech enough for me.

Respect