Malicious Life

Why Did People Write Viruses In The 80s & 90s?

Malicious Life

Show Notes

Why did people write malware in the pre-internet days? Back then, there was no way to make money by writing malware. So why write them in the first place? The lack of a financial motivation meant that virus authors had a plethora of other motives - and this diverse mix of motives had, as we shall hear, an interesting effect on the design and style of viruses created at that period.

Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

More from Malicious Life

Dec 10, 2024

The Electronic Frontier Foundation, long time critics of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, followed Weev's trial - but did not get involved. For the appeal, however, the organization decided to step it. But althought the EFF had some strong points against the CFAA - the justices, appearntly, had something very different on their mind.

Nov 27, 2024

Much like Aaron Swartz did, Andrew "weev" Auernheimer fought against the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, a law both men belived to be dangerous and unjust. But unlike Swartz, the internet's own boy, weev is an unapologetic troll who spread bile and chaos wherever he goes, a man who seemed to take pleasure in making others miserable. His fight raises a thorny question: when a bad person fights for a good cause, how should we feel about it?

Nov 20, 2024

APT-10 is a Chinese nation-state threat actor that in recent years has been targeting Japanese IT & Instrastructure organizations using a sophisticated backdoor malware known as LODEINFO. Recently, Jin Ito & Loic Castel, researchers from Cybereason's IR Team, uncovered a new tool used by the group: NOOPDOOR, which incorporates highly sophisticated persistence mechanisms, allowing APT-10 to evade detection and remain inside enterprise networks for two or even three years.

Nov 13, 2024

Aaron Barr was en-signals intelligence officer specializing in analytics. As part of HBGary Federal, he came up with a plan to unmask the key leaders of Anonymous, the infamous hacker collective. People who worked with Aaron warned him that his data was sub-par, but the determined vet claimed he had a strong "gut feeling" that he was on the right track.

Nov 5, 2024

On 17 and 18 of September 2024, thousands of pagers and hand held radio devices used by Hezbollah, exploded simultaneously across Lebanon and Syria, killing at least 42 terrorists and wounding more than 3,000. Devon Ackerman, Cybereason’s Global Head of Digital Forensic and Incident response and a former Special Agent at the FBI's Operational Technology Division, discusses the lessons organizations can learn from this ultra-sophisticated supply chain attack. How such traumatic events impact the mindset of hacked organizations, what kind of threat actors are capable of pulling off long-term attacks like these, and the three most important steps organizations can take to minimize the chance of a supply chain attack.

See all episodes →