people who create trojans/computer viruses

[Skunkle]

Exactly. Today's "hacker" is only concerned with remotely screwing with people he'll never see or meet. Nor would he WANT to meet them, because he knows they'd toss him for a loop in person.

Seems like virus writers are leaning further and further from pointless maliciousness as they learn that they can get more bang for their buck by creating huge networks to bomb websites or send spam. Is there REALLY that much money in spamming? I'd think it'd be like a pyramid scheme, in that the people at the top make a fair few bucks but the individuals at the bottom, sending out a million emails a day, would be getting .0000000000000001 cents per click. Still, I guess it's worth it to some people.

[Mongo Skruddgemire]

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.

As an uber-geek I must apologize.

Had me and my kind not developed things like Java and Flash and Windows, and software, computers, electronics and the like...no one would be complaining about the fact that these viruses and trojans exist.

Had we not imagined the internet and thought of ways to make it faster and more capable this discussion would not be taking place since we would live in a utopian state where such things didn't exist.

Of course this discussion would not happen because there would be no computers and no internet to hold this discussion, but I'm sure that would be our fault too.

Again I apologize and I will of course take my replica katana off the shelf and perform seppuku straight away.

[AdminAssistant]

Mongo, There's a difference between regular computer geeks and 4Chan Trolls who seek to purposefully harm others, and I'm certain that blas was referring to the latter.

[Amanita]

^Me too. There's a world of difference between people like the ones you mention, who design things which are useful, and bored wankers who only use their computer skills to hurt people and cause trouble.

[Mongo Skruddgemire]

I'm just tetchy because it is always the same for me and my fellow computer geeks.

They assume that we are unable to have meaningful relationships with anything other than our hands.

That aside, there is the constant and ongoing thing we hate about being geeks. When something goes wrong with a computer, they come to us and beg and plead for us to fix the problem and then turn around and fucking blame us for all the evils and ills in the computer and internet age.

You get tired of being told that it is your fault that some twat couldn't be bothered to buy an antivirus (or download one of the many free ones that work well) and now his data is wiped out from some malware that he let in by being bare-assed to the internet.

You get tired of being told that it is your fault that a computer got burned to a toasty crisp because the owner couldn't not be bothered to buy a $20 surge protector to protect his $500 computer or even cheaper...unplug the damn thing when a massive thunderstorm hits the area.

You get frustrated when people scream and yell at you because of all the shit that goes wrong with Microsoft products as if you were the project lead at Microsoft and you were the one to make the decision to release Vista before it was ready or to release WinMe at all.

You get tired of the fact that your own parents bitch and complain that they paid thousands of dollars for you to go to college all for you to tell them that you can not restore the data from the camera card that they accidentally ran through the washing machine in the load with all the whites and a crap-load of chlorine bleach.

Yeah I'm touchy about it. I just got tired of yet another "ooh! It's the Geek's Fault" post when a virus hits. I agree that the people who write these goddamn things need to spend 30 minutes with me, my ball-peen hammer, and all 28 joints in their fingers. But there are times that I wonder what people need more. The technology or someone to blame when the technology goes tits-up.

Nurses don't get blamed when a person's body fails them. Doctors don't get "You gave me cancer you miserable fucker". Electricians don't get people screaming at them with "It's your fault that my (now dead) gerbil chewed up a wire and caused a short that fried my breaker box". Tire Installers don't get "It's your fault that I ran over a screw".

Why should we get this shit?

[Boozy]

Nurses don't get blamed when a person's body fails them. Doctors don't get "You gave me cancer you miserable fucker". Electricians don't get people screaming at them with "It's your fault that my (now dead) gerbil chewed up a wire and caused a short that fried my breaker box". Tire Installers don't get "It's your fault that I ran over a screw".

Oh, sure they do.

Your examples are just a bit off.

People don't blame their doctors for giving them cancer, but some blame them for not curing them. A tire installation store won't get blamed when someone runs over a screw, but some people blame their mechanics when their car breaks down - even if its 20 years-old.

I sell wine for a living, and you wouldn't believe the things people manage to blame me for.

You make some valid points, but let's not pretend that computer techs are in a uniquely maligned profession. The martyr routine doesn't wash with me. Some computer techs have done a lot of good, and some have done a lot of bad. Most of them fall somewhere in the middle, just like the rest of us do in our professions.

[blas87]

I was referring to the people who find humor and joy in destroying people's computers, stealing identities, creating huge viruses that spread like wildfire, etc etc. Perhaps it wasn't nice to call them geeks, but they are the type of person who is obviously beyond help because they find pleasure in using their skills to destroy other people's computers or steal people's information, just as Admin said.

It probably wasn't the nicest of things to say or label, for that I will apologize if I hurt your feelings.

[KellyHabersham]

Just stopping by to ask for positive thoughts on this getting resolved...........tomorrow I'm taking my laptop to the nearby Verizon store to see what they can do about it not recognizing their "Access Manager" software. (it's virus-free, just can't/won't connect to the Internet)

And I'm hoping that they can fix this, because if not, I'd have to cancel my service contract with them.......not trying to be sucky, but I don't want to pay for a service which I cannot use, and I just don't have the money to take it a computer repair place.

[protege]

A tire installation store won't get blamed when someone runs over a screw, but some people blame their mechanics when their car breaks down - even if its 20 years-old.

Exactly. Spend enough time in auto parts stores, and you'll come away with all sorts of things that mechanics have supposedly done to cause vehicles to fail. I've heard of people revving the life out of their Civic's engine, and when it throws a rod...it's either Honda or the mechanic's fault. Same thing when the owner allows the car to run out of oil/coolant, and the ensuing engine failure isn't their fault. Also not their fault, is beating the living shit out of their vehicle (even a new and expensive one), and then the resulting failure(s) and bitching up a storm when said failures aren't covered by the warranty.

Sorry, but fuck that shit. There's only *one* mechanic that deserves *any* blame in things...and that would be the idiot across town that "restored" my MG. That assclown cost me a shitload of time and money rectifying some of the "repairs" that were done, and thus *deserves* my wrath.

Back on topic, add me to the group that hate the assholes who create trojans and viruses. I actually work for a brokerage...and most of my job involves maintaining a computer network. Anyone want to guess what we have to deal with on a daily basis? Various viruses, people trying to break past our firewall, attempted damage to our data, not to mention someone trying to use our 'net connection for a DOS attack All of that shit goes on every day. Every day, I have to spend my time cleaning things up because some asshole get off on causing trouble.

I do know that if I ever found the person responsible for the damage...they wouldn't like how I'd handle the situation. That is, I'd get every blunt object (including the pipe with the railroad spike on the end) in my workshop, and beat the shit out of them.

[Racket_Man]

here is what this type of activity is evolving into (and you knew it was going to happen out in the open sooner or later ie cyber-warfare)

http://techtalk.pcpitstop.com/2010/1...-boom-mommie/?

this is the gist of the article

Make no mistake, this virus is not about a few stolen credit card numbers. There is a war going on. There are good guys and bad guys. The good guys are called "White Hat Hackers", the bad guys are called "Black Hat Hackers", and they are locked in mortal combat.

The introduction of the Stuxnet Virus changed the game. It amazed and horrified all the current experts. The attack on Bushehr (Added: an Iranin nuclear plant) was and still is, a big deal. The Stuxnet virus attacked a physical plant, and a nuclear plant at that. No longer a simple attack on software but a full blown attack on hard objects.

This absolutely marks the beginning of a new era. The beginning of digital strikes against physical targets. The results can be the same as if someone dropped a bomb on your city .

Stuxnet took months of preparation and a level of expertises that was previously unknown. A bag of new tactics that infected without internet connections, without the click of a button. The sophistication was staggering. There's little doubt that the attack was the work of a well trained group or nation and not the work of individuals.

and this

The real issue is much bigger and much more ominous. The real issue is about the safety of nations and families. I've never looked to see where or how many nuclear plants were in the US, but a quick Google search let me know that unless I move to Oregon or North Dakota, I've got every chance of glowing like a light bulb if someone decides to launch a similar attack in the US.

here is a few articles describing what happened
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20101003...omputerstuxnet

http://news.yahoo.com/s/csm/20100921/ts_csm/327178

the gist of the tw articles

Stuxnet surfaced in June and, by July, was identified as a hypersophisticated piece of malware probably created by a team working for a nation state, say cyber security experts. Its name is derived from some of the filenames in the malware. It is the first malware known to target and infiltrate industrial supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) software used to run chemical plants and factories as well as electric power plants and transmission systems worldwide. That much the experts discovered right away.

By August, researchers had found something more disturbing: Stuxnet appeared to be able to take control of the automated factory control systems it had infected – and do whatever it was programmed to do with them. That was mischievous and dangerous.


But it gets worse. Since reverse engineering chunks of Stuxnet's massive code, senior US cyber security experts confirm what Mr. Langner, the German researcher, told the Monitor: Stuxnet is essentially a precision, military-grade cyber missile deployed early last year to seek out and destroy one real-world target of high importance – a target still unknown.

"Stuxnet is a 100-percent-directed cyber attack aimed at destroying an industrial process in the physical world," says Langner, who last week became the first to publicly detail Stuxnet's destructive purpose and its authors' malicious intent. "This is not about espionage, as some have said. This is a 100 percent sabotage attack."


Stuxnet's ability to autonomously and without human assistance discriminate among industrial computer systems is telling. It means, says Langner, that it is looking for one specific place and time to attack one specific factory or power plant in the entire world.

"Stuxnet is the key for a very specific lock – in fact, there is only one lock in the world that it will open," Langner says in an interview. "The whole attack is not at all about stealing data but about manipulation of a specific industrial process at a specific moment in time. This is not generic. It is about destroying that process

For those worried about a future cyber attack that takes control of critical computerized infrastructure – in a nuclear power plant, for instance – Stuxnet is a big, loud warning shot across the bow, especially for the utility industry and government overseers of the US power grid.

this is scary stuff indeed. but should not be a surprise to those in the computer/IT field. all of this is aledged to have been caused by an infected USB memory stick. none of the computers at the Iranian nuclear facility have Internet access.