Like I understand maybe wanting to get information maybe from like big government sources or something, but why do these viruses also target random people?
What is there to gain from screwing up a random person’s software?
Like is it just to be petty or are they gathering data??
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Back in the 80’s to 00’s they were mostly passion projects from random software devs, anyone could make a virus due to laws being less strict. They used to add their names and everything up to personalized political opinions. Now it’s more about money and exploiting people rather than getting good reactions.
Back in the 80’s to 00’s they were mostly passion projects from random software devs, anyone could make a virus due to laws being less strict. They used to add their names and everything up to personalized political opinions. Now it’s more about money and exploiting people rather than getting good reactions.
It’s largely an unfortunate coincidence created by the nature of computing technology.
Computers and computer viruses are similar in many ways to their biological counterparts. One human’s body is basically the same as any other: we all have lungs, a heart, kidneys, a brain, and so forth. A biological virus that affects one person’s body stands a good chance of being able to infect another person’s body in the same way.
Similarly, every computer has (roughly) the same design: a processor, a video card, RAM, a network interface, and a data-storage system. It’s difficult and time-consuming to tailor a computer virus to affect *only* the target system, so most virus programmers don’t bother.
It’s not necessarily an *intentional* attack on randomly-chosen systems; it’s just that a virus doesn’t always distinguish between ‘valid’ and ‘invalid’ targets.
It’s largely an unfortunate coincidence created by the nature of computing technology.
Computers and computer viruses are similar in many ways to their biological counterparts. One human’s body is basically the same as any other: we all have lungs, a heart, kidneys, a brain, and so forth. A biological virus that affects one person’s body stands a good chance of being able to infect another person’s body in the same way.
Similarly, every computer has (roughly) the same design: a processor, a video card, RAM, a network interface, and a data-storage system. It’s difficult and time-consuming to tailor a computer virus to affect *only* the target system, so most virus programmers don’t bother.
It’s not necessarily an *intentional* attack on randomly-chosen systems; it’s just that a virus doesn’t always distinguish between ‘valid’ and ‘invalid’ targets.
It’s largely an unfortunate coincidence created by the nature of computing technology.
Computers and computer viruses are similar in many ways to their biological counterparts. One human’s body is basically the same as any other: we all have lungs, a heart, kidneys, a brain, and so forth. A biological virus that affects one person’s body stands a good chance of being able to infect another person’s body in the same way.
Similarly, every computer has (roughly) the same design: a processor, a video card, RAM, a network interface, and a data-storage system. It’s difficult and time-consuming to tailor a computer virus to affect *only* the target system, so most virus programmers don’t bother.
It’s not necessarily an *intentional* attack on randomly-chosen systems; it’s just that a virus doesn’t always distinguish between ‘valid’ and ‘invalid’ targets.
Many reasons, mostly related to profit
Some viruses open web pages in the background and click on ads so the website owner gets paid.
Some viruses inject affiliate links when you visit a site so the virus owner gets paid a commission on each sale.
Some virus owners use infected machines to launch DDOS attacks which others pay them to do.
Some viruses steal usernames and passwords which the virus owner can use or sell.
Then you have ransomware which is self explanatory.
Many reasons, mostly related to profit
Some viruses open web pages in the background and click on ads so the website owner gets paid.
Some viruses inject affiliate links when you visit a site so the virus owner gets paid a commission on each sale.
Some virus owners use infected machines to launch DDOS attacks which others pay them to do.
Some viruses steal usernames and passwords which the virus owner can use or sell.
Then you have ransomware which is self explanatory.
Many reasons, mostly related to profit
Some viruses open web pages in the background and click on ads so the website owner gets paid.
Some viruses inject affiliate links when you visit a site so the virus owner gets paid a commission on each sale.
Some virus owners use infected machines to launch DDOS attacks which others pay them to do.
Some viruses steal usernames and passwords which the virus owner can use or sell.
Then you have ransomware which is self explanatory.
As some people have mentioned, there can be financial motivation, but some people just like to watch the world burn. In some cases, it is the digital equivalent of a random act of vandalism. This is probably less the motivation now than, say, back in the early 90s when internet based commerce was less of a thing.
As some people have mentioned, there can be financial motivation, but some people just like to watch the world burn. In some cases, it is the digital equivalent of a random act of vandalism. This is probably less the motivation now than, say, back in the early 90s when internet based commerce was less of a thing.
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