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General discussion

Worm writers motivated by money, not notoriety

Nov 24, 2003 1:20AM PST

A change is afoot within the world of worm writers. Experts say that, more than ever, the creation of malicious code is being driven by profit. Worm writers are becoming intent on using malware to steal sensitive data and sell it, rather than vandalizing a Web server to inflate their egos, for example.

"In the past, teenagers would write something just to say, 'Hey, isn't this cool'," said Mikko Hypponen, manager of antivirus research for Finland-based F-Secure Corp. "Now, there are worms that go through product development. They are QA'd. New versions are released."

Worms have become vehicles for harvesting credit card and Social Security numbers, and for finding back doors into a company's sensitive data repositories.

Yahoo! News

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