Virus writers 'obsessed with sex and computer games'

[InfoSec News <isn () c4i org>]

http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/55/26827.html

By John Leyden
Posted: 27/08/2002 at 16:04 GMT

Virus writers are sados obsessed with sex and computer games, not the
evil geniuses Hollywood and fear-mongering Washington politicians
portray them as.

That's the view of Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at
Sophos, who said "virus writers are much more likely to be teenage
males than crack cyberterrorists bent on the annihilation of the
internet."

Cluley poured cold water on the notion that viruses might bring down
critical systems, pointing out that most are spread by email and are
relatively easy to defend against. Viruses are a nuisance but those
who elevate their threat are actually doing a disservice to security
by misstating their importance, he added.

In anti-virus circles, Cluley is well known for describing virus
writers (VXers) in less than flattering terms, once memorably saying
they only wrote malicious code because they were spotty teenage nerds
who couldn't pull.

Now gaming, as well as salacious sexual themes (for example, the Anna
Kournikova worm) are becoming mainstays among virus writers. These
themes show the preoccupations of both virus writers and those they
are targeting with their malicious code, Cluley reckons.

The latest viruses, such as the DuLoad worm, which has the potential
to infect PCs connected to the KaZaA file sharing network, and Surnova
worm, have filenames related to gaming.

For example, the DuLoad worm disguises itself by randomly using a pool
of 39 filenames. These filenames - which reflect a preoccupation with
sex, celebrity, computer games and hacking - include 'J. Lo Bikini
Screensaver.exe', 'Kama Sutra Tetris.exe', 'Free Mpegs.exe' and 'The
Sims Game crack.exe', as well as some pornographic references.

Cluley's previous sociological analysis of virus writing has been less
than favourably received among VXers themselves.

Most notably he clashed with female virus writer Gigabyte (creator of
the first virus that used Microsoft's C# language), who lambasted
Cluley as sexist for his comments on Usenet newsgroups.

Far from being sexist, Cluley told us, his remarks only reflected the
idea the girls were generally "too sensible" to write viruses
(patronising bastard - Ed).



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