Diary of a Network Geek

Computer virus hunters, that is.

Ever wondered how anti-virus companies go about making those “updates” that so many of us download? Well, this article on Wired News gives us a little insight. Basically, they sound like any other IT department, to me, except for the somewhat added time-pressure I imagine most of them feel. I mean, at the rate new viruses (virii ?) appear “in the wild”, these folks must be busier than a one-legged man in a butt-kicking contest!
The interesting thing about the article, though, was that it’s getting harder to find people who want to do this kind of work and are qualified for it. Of course, the qualifications are somewhat “esoteric”. For one thing, you need to know assembly. How many people know assembly these days? Besides my brother, I mean. (See, I *am* the non-nerd in the family!) Then, of course, you have to have a very creative mind, because computer virus hunters basically have to reverse engineer these little suckers. I would imagine it’s very tedious work that only someone really focused and detail oriented is able to do well.

In any case, it was an interesting article.

I always knew there was a connection!

According to this article on ZDNet, those scum of the Earth spammers are using viruses to take over innocent machines as spamming zombies. Probably the innocent victim has no idea that it’s even possible for their machine to send out thousands of unsolicited e-mail advertisements, much less that they’re actually doing it. This is a really, really disturbing new trend in virus/worm writing. Anyone caught writing a virus to do this should be taken out and horse-whipped before being trampled to death.