http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=17923 By Nick Farrell 18 August 2004 SECURITY EXPERTS MessageLabs say that there is evidence that virus writers are working hand in hand with spammers. The move takes the virus writers away from their self-appointed roles as champions of the small guy against corporatism and into the hands of dark cyber capitalism. According to a recent report, MessageLabs says it has established the link by monitoring chat rooms to infiltrate the secretive world of virus writers and spammers. It claims to have seen messages flow between virus writers and spam writers about joining forces. The spammers are faced with a proliferation of software blocking spam and are keen to pay writers to create viruses that attach to e-mails and circumvent the spam blockers. "There is little or no monetary profit to be gained from simply distributing viruses, but when you combine the capabilities of a virus and the profit that can be earned from spam, suddenly you have an altogether more materialistic proposition," MessageLabs said in its report. However it represents a change in the profile of virus writers who always saw themselves as counter-culture. The image of the teen hacker nerd standing against the big corporates such as Microsoft is enshrined in the movie industry and often a redeeming feature in court cases when they are caught. However with recent cases of cyber extortion, links to the Russian Mafia, and now links to spammers, the hacker's image is turning from annoying criminal with a small c, to outright evil money grabbers and they are unlikely to ever get the same level of sympathy again. Still that is the dark side for you. _________________________________________ Open Source Vulnerability Database (OSVDB) Everything is Vulnerable - http://www.osvdb.org/
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