Purpose of Viruses and Worms (1 Viewer)

[popjin]

Hey everyone, I was just looking back on my notes and was a bit confused about the point of Viruses and Worms.

All of the other types of Malware have a specific purpose (Spyware for Identity Theft, Ransomware for Financial Gain, etc), but as far as I can tell, Viruses and Worms just aim to spread and infect as many systems as possible and cause system damage in some cases.

What's the point of that? Do malicious developers create these just because they can? Why put time and effort into developing something like this when it doesn't bring any benefit to the attacker?

 

[Drdusk]

What's the point of that? Do malicious developers create these just because they can? Why put time and effort into developing something like this when it doesn't bring any benefit to the attacker?

"Some people just wanna watch the world burn..."

No but in all seriousness they are VERY useful to inflict damage to others on purpose. There is a very famous one known in Cyber-security called StuxNet. No one really knows who developed it. Some think it was American Intelligence but it was developed to halt Iran's nuclear regime. It caused the disks to spin too fast and caused a catastrophic breakdown in Irans nuclear facility. So yes they are helpful lol.

 

[brent012]

It might be surprising, but a while ago (and probably even when the SDD syllabus was written) malware generally had less financial motivation than it does today. People would do it for some form of hacker cred or challenge, conspiracy theorists might also say that anti-virus developers had something to do with it too.

These days viruses and worms are usually just used to spread the other malware you've mentioned, e.g. ransomware, recruiting for botnets etc.

Then there is corporate or national espionage or cyberwarfare like Drdusk has mentioned.

 

[Neil_]

I peruse a forum called HackForums, just to keep in touch with modern security standards and because there are some smart folks on there.

In the marketplace, people sell to eachother RATs, botnets etc the goal is to amass as many slaves (computers under control) so they can mine bitcoin etc.

However, a virus and a worm's purpose are different.

A virus is just something that spreads - these can utilise unpatched exploits in major OSs *cough Windows, move to Ubuntu*, eg. like the WannaCry Virus which can be classified as a 'RansomWare' type of virus, extorting people for their sweet sweet BTC...

A worm, however irrelevant today (not kinda used today, but it's in the syllabus since SDD is outdated)... has a purpose of slowing down a computer. You could potentially classify Adware (you know the shit that makes your browser have weird toolbars, and shows ads everywhere...) as a form of worm as it slows down your PC.

 

[Drdusk]

In the marketplace, people sell to eachother RATs, botnets etc the goal is to amass as many slaves (computers under control) so they can mine bitcoin etc.

Oh yes hackers will also sell stuff like Zero day exploits and people will give you heaps especially if it’s in a something like Microsoft for example.

Somehow the hackers that made StuxNet found I think 3 or 4 Zero Days in Microsoft which is literally insane.

There’s an amazing doc available on it on Netflix. You guys should go watch.

 

[popjin]

Thanks guys! There's a lot interesting insights here.

From what I've gathered here, viruses and worms are general terms which describe a range of programs with different functions and motives. Stuxnet seems really interesting, I had always assumed it was a precise, targeted attack and not "infect everything and hope for the best". I definitely think the SDD syllabus should have gone more in depth into case studies and specific types of malware like these. On a side note, I'd thinking of studying Cyber Security/International Security in the future and was wondering if you guys had any suggestion or advice on things to do or read up on? It seems like a cool field which has a lot of potential in our current society.

 

[brent012]

I'd recommend following blogs like KrebsOnSecurity (which I think gives a broad survey of security stuff), watching talks from conferences like DEFCON, BlackHat etc. That will give you ideas on what to read up on next based on your interests. If you go to uni after graduation, there'll also almost certainly be an extracurricular cybersecurity society of some sort which i'd highly recommend you join. Even as a high school student, there might be competitions, meetups etc. you can get involved in.

Ultimately, if you're considering it as a career, you'd probably want to decide if you're interested in the more technical or people/process side of cyber security.

 

[Drdusk]

On a side note, I'd thinking of studying Cyber Security/International Security in the future and was wondering if you guys had any suggestion or advice on things to do or read up on? It seems like a cool field which has a lot of potential in our current society.

Cyber sec is LIT. I just find whatever I can on on this stuff and learn it.