Why do people make viruses?
Why do people make viruses? They just slow our computer down and frustrate us.
Petrice, Hamilton South
Hi Petrice,
Most virus writers do what they do for the money. Writing viruses can be a very lucrative career as most of the creators live in poorer parts of the world.
Where the money comes from depends on the type of virus that they write.
Malware generally presents itself as unwanted toolbars in your browsers, popups to adult websites or a change of your homepage. The malware writers get paid a commission based on how many computers they can get to use others products.
In the case of changing your homepage or popups the page you are shown will have an affiliate program that pays people to refer traffic to the site. This means that a virus writer will setup their virus to change your home page and every time you open your web browser they will get paid. It is generally only measured in cents however with enough computers infected, it can add up. While the website owners generally aren’t the creators of the virus they are more than happy to benefit from it.
Ransome ware is another type of virus which are used to extort money out of the user. The two major cases we see are the Australian Federal Police virus and Crypto Locker.
The Australian Federal Police virus locks your computer and shows a page stating it is from the AFP. It is a scary page stating that you have been illegally downloading child pornography and unless you pay up you will be arrested.
Crypto locker is only just starting to make the rounds. It encrypts your files using the same technology used to protect your credit card transactions online. The only way to get your files back is to restore from a backup or pay the fee.
The third major way they make money is to use your computer as what is called a zombie. The virus writer creates a virus that takes control of your computer. Generally you won’t notice as they are issuing commands in the background telling your computer to attack websites or other computers. People then pay the virus writer to attack a target of their choosing.
And finally the last way they get money is by stealing your details. Whether it is your credit card details to make purchases, your online banking details or your personal details to steal your identity. By gathering information from your computer they can directly take money from you
The big reason that your computer slows down when infected is that the virus writers get greedy. They go over the top and install too many toolbars or too many zombie infections and that is why you notice them.
