Why do people write malicious software?
Why do people do anything that harms others? Well, like in many other endeavors, sometimes the mantra “Follow the Money” will give some kind of an answer. Other times, the old adage about climbing Mount Everest – “Because it’s there” is more apt. Examples of money motivators include much of the spyware that is designed expressly to track your habits online, maintain a record that gets sent back to someone somewhere, for the purpose of targeting you with junk email or worse. This type of malware is certainly money-motivated, when the number of “hits” a site gets directly relates to advertising revenue. If the “hits” are generated artificially with the help of malicious software, we all lose. One method that has become more popular in recent years is the spam-generating “work at home” businesses that are advertised on daytime and late night television. These are often referral services that connect you to an agent that will charge you (!) to get involved in a spamming scheme. An example
