people who create trojans/computer viruses

[KellyHabersham]

*Just for the record, I am NOT the type of person who would knowingly download such things, I'm just REALLY frustrated with the whole situation*

Without getting into all the details - two weeks ago, my laptop suddenly got extremely slow to the point where it wouldn't function at all. As it is still under warranty, I took it to the Verizon store where I got it from, only to be told that I would need to call Hewlett-Packard's customer service number, because that company actually deals with the warranty stuff.

Anyhow, turned out that I apparently had a bunch of trojans on my laptop, and because that sort of thing is NOT covered under warranty, I had to pay for tech support to get it fixed. And unfortunately it didn't end up quite that simple - let's just say it would've been a LOT easier if the tech support people didn't have to follow a script and try to troubleshoot where it was NOT needed or possible.

So.....my laptop is currently being worked on by relatives who are far more computer-literate than I am, and it's been REALLY frustrating not being able to get online at home. (makes it harder to keep in touch with what I need to do for my secretary job)

[Greenday]

Thanks to a virus that hid itself as a java update, my laptop is worthless. My laptop can't read CDs now. I get pop-ups. It runs slow most of the time. If I turn off or restart my laptop, I get the blue screen of death immediately upon logging on. I have to do a system restore in order to get it to work.

I'm going to be ordering a new laptop this week. It was five years old anyway.

[Sarah Valentine]

What the hell posseses people to create those things?

[blas87]

Blame it on uber geeks who have no lives and think it's fun to destroy people's computers. Jealousy, boredom, and too much knowledge being used the wrong way.

And those fucks who think it's funny to install keyloggers and steal banking and other information. Get an inflatable girlfriend if you're that lonely.

[Rageaholic]

Trojans suck.

I had to have my computer completely reset three times because of these damn viruses (and by reset I mean every program uninstalled and started from scratch). Every trojan was the result of over aggressive spyware and adware. Yes, trying to sell me stuff that I would most likely never buy nearly killed my computer 3 times.

And it's not like I foolishly downloaded something either. This was all the result of popups from random websites slowing down my computer to the point of freezing (even when I first turned it on!). Why must these things exist?

[KellyHabersham]

I'll admit that a lot of my frustration comes from the fact that I just don't have the time or knowledge to deal with the tech support people myself (plus the fact that I can't hear that well over the phone), and I definitely don't have the money to take my laptop physically into a store to get it repaired.

[Eisa]

I got a computer virus for a really...stupid reason [i.e. when your antivirus program says "hey wait don't download that..." LISTEN TO IT the only reason I didn't was because my antivirus has a tendency to do that to all downloads, even ones for like school that are perfectly trusted. But yeah.]. And I fixed it myself by looking up solutions online. It's not perfect...and I posted a help topic on a computer forum for people who are way more experienced than I am to help me with it [speaking of which, I really should finish up with that...just 'cause it's working now doesn't mean it's perfect ], but yeah. Any kind of professional tech support was gonna be my LAST resort.

Particularly if I had to deal with the tech support at my school. I had to come in with my laptop to get so I could get wireless around campus [they had to put the password in]. Starting up, my computer's a little slow...it always has been. It doesn't have a lot of memory, and I need to have more programs than I probably should have on it. But it still works great. The idiot doing it managed to freeze it just because he couldn't wait like 2 more minutes. So I had to do a hard boot/cold restart [whatever it's called when you have to just press the power button 'til it dies] and he was acting like it was my computer's fault. If I didn't need the wireless password, I swear I would have said, "No, it's YOUR fault because you apparently don't realize computers need more than a minute to BOOT UP!"

[Boozy]

the only reason I didn't was because my antivirus has a tendency to do that to all downloads, even ones for like school that are perfectly trusted.

My anti-virus software does that too, which makes the "warning before download" feature virtually useless.

It does handle a lot of shit behind the scenes, though.

[Eisa]

Yeah, I love my antivirus, it DOES do a lot of work...but with that downloading thing, I even had to go in and change the settings so that I was the one who could approve/deny because it was blocking everything automatically. Which is good, not denying that, but can be really bad when it's stuff I NEED.

[insertNameHere]

I got a computer virus for a really...stupid reason [i.e. when your antivirus program says "hey wait don't download that..." LISTEN TO IT the only reason I didn't was because my antivirus has a tendency to do that to all downloads, even ones for like school that are perfectly trusted. But yeah.].

Somehow our one prof uploaded a virus on accident, so it is possible that it shouldn't be trusted. Of course ones that flag all the time are useless to some, like on my windows 7 before a program starts it asks me should the program start. annoying yes, but somewhat helpful because if I didn't ask it to execute it might be something malicious that needs to be stopped. Of course non-tech people just always click yes. And when I had vista I had to turn off User Account Control I got sick of it not letting me do what I wanted with my computer.

Actually, I'm looking up gray area stuff for when I get my usb microcontroller, then there is this other thing I'm gonna build, just need a U3 drive
hak5 switchblade, it takes advantage of the fact U3 is seen as a cdrom drive that can auto execute. In the video demoing it he said how he can look all innocent when he plugs it in, me tihnks such as someone giving you some mp3 files and in the background the drive is dropping a payload, this particular one in a matter of seconds copys important info such as product keys and password hashes, and can be configured to do other stuff. It goes back to knowledge is power and it really depends on how you want to use it. For me, the switchblade is a tool for fixing computers, being able to quickly pull off product keys for recovery on a computer I'm about to reformat is nice. However, some people would use the information for other reasons.

[KellyHabersham]

Well, I spoke with my sister's husband this morning, and he said basically everything is okay with my laptop, the one exception being that my modem is apparently NOT recognizing my "official" Verizon connection and reads as though it's not installed. Which means that I may have to go down to the nearest Verizon store and explain the situation....hopefully they can replace it for me.

Because I don't want to be an SC, but since my actual warranty is with Hewlett-Packard, and my understanding is that the modem is Verizon's software, I can see where things might get potentially sucky. And since I can't afford to get another laptop, 'tis important that I can get this sorted out.

[draco664]

What the hell posseses people to create those things?

Generally? Money.

If a programmer can get a trojan on thousands of PCs, then they essentially control an network of distributed computers, which they can use in all sorts of profitable (and illegal) ways. Sending spam that gets around IP address filters. Denial of Service attacks on websites. Storing illegal content. That sort of thing. (Imagine discovering that your PC has been infected and is being used to store something like child pornography so the real owner won't have it on his computer...)

But there are other reasons. Non malicious reasons include pranks, curiosity, experimentation. But it doesn't tend to matter why someone wrote it, the end users tend to be a bit pissed about it.

[KellyHabersham]

Generally? Money.

If a programmer can get a trojan on thousands of PCs, then they essentially control an network of distributed computers, which they can use in all sorts of profitable (and illegal) ways. Sending spam that gets around IP address filters. Denial of Service attacks on websites. Storing illegal content. That sort of thing. (Imagine discovering that your PC has been infected and is being used to store something like child pornography so the real owner won't have it on his computer...)

But there are other reasons. Non malicious reasons include pranks, curiosity, experimentation. But it doesn't tend to matter why someone wrote it, the end users tend to be a bit pissed about it.

Pissed, and frustrated because the computer which I use in the church office didn't pick up the said trojans, and I visit mostly the same websites as I did on my laptop.

[Skunkle]

And sometimes, it's just for the amusement of really stupid people. "Hey, I can make computers belonging to thousands of people I've never met become completely useless paperweights. I have POWER".

I put this on the same level as trolling, which amounts to "Hey, if I slam this guy in t\he shoulder with a Louisville Slugger or tell him I think his mom and baby sister should be murdered tomorrow, he gets really angry. Isn't that a riot?"

Some people are just easily amused. Remember Beavis & Butt-Head Do America? The pair are thrown in Muddy's trunk. "Huh huh huh, hey look, Beavis. It's a jack. Yeah heh heh. Jack". Ten states later, "Heh heh heh, jack. Yeah, huh huh huh. Jack". To some people, it IS still funny to ten thousandth time. *sigh*

[Racket_Man]

I remember 25 years ago (waaayyy before the internet really broke out of the DARPA area) when you had to be knowledgeable in order to be called a "hacker". not saying this was right cause people (mostly young males) delighted in breaking into or taking over or discovering something interesting about computers and how they worked. in order to "crack" a game or program there was knowledge involved.

Now it seems that all you have are "script kiddies" (who really do NOT understand what they are doing), malicious idiots (anyone remember the I Love You Virus from like 11 years ago), criminals, terrorists, govenments, perverts, and the like.