By Will Sturgeon, 17 July 2006 13:05
NEWS
Modern virus writers and the criminal operations which pay for their skills are looking ever more like real businesses according to one security expert, who even likened them to dot-com start-ups.
Greg Day, security analyst at McAfee, said these operations are showing alarming levels of professionalism and while the idea that malware distribution has been governed by a financial motivation in recent years is nothing new, Day says research for McAfee's annual global threat report reveals it has now reached new levels of sophistication and looks set to continue in that trend.
"To me this is starting to look more and more like a proper business," he told silicon.com, with more contributors working to give malware a longer and more effective shelf life.
Day said an 'open source mentality' also helps in this regard. The distribution of virus code openly across the internet and greater collusion between writers are key in contributing towards what appears to be a very real research and development cycle within these organisations.
"The mentality of open source is helping them," said Day. "More brains equals better technology. Open source is a great idea, it's just a shame they've taken that great concept and are using its success for their own benefit."
Day said virus writers and those who stand to gain from the bot-nets and malware will be asking themselves questions about how they can move their business on by growing it, innovating and developing new products. They will be drawing from tools available online and they will be looking at their business in the way many more mature, legitimate companies do.
"They'll be asking 'What functionality do we need to bring in to give this a second life?'," said Day. "I can't help but look at these trends and think of it in terms of a start-up."
Comments
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1. Eric the Disillusioned
What exactly is this article trying to say?
That virus writes are bright cookies (scuse the pun) that seek ever more inventive and sustainable ways of achieving their aims? Dah... they are bright cookies for sure. We all know that.
That open source is an effective way of letting the grass roots dictate the market? Maybe, the coders have always wanted to keep control of the toolbox. It keeps them in a job.
That virus writers mimic legitimate organisations in structure and professionalism? Good practice is good practice. Why should it be the monopoly of the legitimate?
That virus writing is now so organisaed and ubiquitous that it demonstrates an antithesis to the enforcement against it? We've known this for years. The Russians and Chinese are practically untouchable thanks to failures in our foreign policies and international image.
That one day these guys might go legit? I bloody doubt it. The difference between an entrepreneur and a scumbag malware writer is that the former has a sense of right and wrong and seeks innovative ways to legitimately make money and the latter cannot be trusted to follow the rules and will lie, cheat and steal to make money.
Maybe you need to make sure that your article presses home this point.
2. Harry Jones
To me this is the equivalent of likening a burglar to an entrepreneur! That's the real motivation behind most virus generation...the chance to become viewed as some sort of "guru", rather than, more properly, as a small-time common criminal.
3. Perry Offer
What sort of socialist garbage is this?
Enterpreneurs thrive by creating value for others - not destroying value.
Yet again - another attempt to equate bad with good under some feeble guise - this time that the businesses resemble start-ups
And don't tell me it's just expression of an opinion, it's indicative of a steadily growing and harmful attitiude in society
The next attempt at justification will be that all hackers and virus writers come from broken homes.....