Quote:
Originally posted by Nathans_Dad
I cannot figure out why people spend their time coming up with viruses and worms that gain them nothing and just spread misery amongst the computer using public...get a life!!
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Actually, not all worms and viruses 'gain them nothing.'
There are two primary types of worm objectives. The first is the 'net equivalent of spray-painting your name on freeway overpasses - to gather as much notoriety and street cred in the hacker community as possible.
The second is more insidious. These actually install spam-generation engines, keyloggers and other malware. A good percentage of spam is generated on the home PC's of clueless DSL users. There are also millions of PCs infected with zombieware waiting to be awakened at a later date. These are the most worrisome worms, and also the quietest - they want to stay off the radar as long as possible.
Once the worm writer has built up street cred, he rents the worm to spammers and who knows who else.