Chick Hackers & Virus Writers

[William Knowles <wk () C4I ORG>]

http://netculture.about.com/internet/netculture/library/weekly/aa051100a.htm

Dateline: 5-11-00

First a bad virus called Melissa. Now one whose author could have that
for a middle name.

The "I Love You" email worm outshadows its predecessor. Among those
suspected of spawning it are not one, but three, females. Long
fingernails aside, there's nothing preventing a woman from tapping out
errant code. But what if? What a surprise.

Tracking the Elusive Female

Hacking, cracking and virus-programming is characteristically male,
just as women are still a minority in programming. Researcher Sarah
Gordon of IBM could find hardly any women doing it. Her mid-1990s
paper on virus writers notes:

"In conversations with dozens of individuals involved in the virus
writing culture, we have found only two instances of 'direct' female
involvement."


By 1999 the number was up to five.


[...]



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