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Microsoft, RSA Working on Windows Lock | |
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| Time: 17:32 EST/22:32 GMT | News Source: E-Mail | Posted By: Byron Hinson | ||
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Progress is being made against viruses, network attacks and sloppy code that make systems vulnerable, said Gates. But, he added, a lot more work remains. "The people who attack these systems are getting more and more sophisticated," Gates said Tuesday. "For every time we take a type of attack and eliminate that as an opportunity, they move up to a whole new level. That's not an unending process - we can make it dramatically difficult." | ||
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| #1 By 12071 (203.185.215.149) at 2/25/2004 6:17:17 PM |
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""The people who attack these systems are getting more and more sophisticated," Gates said Tuesday"
What a load of cr*p! More sophisticated? You're kidding me! The viruses that were being created in the 80's and early 90's were sophisticated! They were able to do unbelievable things given how tiny in size they were. Today's viruses are not even glorified VBA macro's! Every script kiddie on the planet can write an Outlook virus! We're lucky that today's viruses AREN'T created by sophisticated people who want to cause harm else we would really be in trouble! |
| #2 By 19992 (68.69.127.19) at 2/25/2004 11:07:36 PM |
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Chris -
The virus writers (the real ones) of the late 80s and early 90s were the pioneers of some of the truly great virus technologies. However, as far as delivering their payload, they were attacking a different class of machines then. We didn't have anything like a HAL to protect us from these viruses. Don't even get me started about the sorry state of AV software back then. If you still (or ever did) have a copy of Ludwigs "Little Black Book of Computer Viruses" (The Giant Black Book will also suffice) take a look at some of the code in there. They are well written, but they would require direct access to the hardware. There were script kiddies back then as well, or have you never heard of TPE, VCL or NoWhere Man's Utilities? The programs built viruses for you (somewhere around 1000 new viruses could be produced in a 4 hour period with one of these). This post was edited by happyguy on Wednesday, February 25, 2004 at 23:10. |
| #3 By 12071 (203.217.69.61) at 2/26/2004 4:27:32 AM |
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#3 I not only heard of VCL etc but I also had a copy of them - although I think these didn't come out until the 90's? not sure on that!. I was intrigued with viruses at that stage, I was impressed with the mastery of assembler and deep down knowledge of individual hardware that those writers had. The polymorphism routines, everything, was really a work of art in the case of some of those viruses.
In contrast, the viruses these days are a joke. Sloppy, crappy work by anyone who has learnt VBA for half a day! I could teach my mother to write one of these "viruses", it's hardly an achievement! Playing on Microsoft's bad design decisions and people's obsessions with double clicking on executables attached to emails with the subject line "I Love You" is hardly anything to be proud of! I agree, the real viruses back then were hard to spread - many had to be spread via floppy - but they could stay undetected, change themselves and seriously screw around with your hardware (that's if they didn't already delete all your files and format your HDD or just screw up your MBR!). These days no-one bothers writing better viruses because they don't need to! They know that they can write something quickly, attach it to an email and be sure that 25% (or whatever it may be) of Windows users will happily double click on their creation. So like I said, we're lucky that people are choosing to write viruses to attack as many people as possible rather than writing viruses that will actually cause harm! |
| #4 By 931 (68.219.163.127) at 2/26/2004 5:16:43 AM |
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"we're lucky that people are choosing to write viruses to attack as many people as possible rather than writing viruses that will actually cause harm! "
tiss unfortunately true. 90% of viruses today dont actually do harm to your system. Course they cause all sorts of other havok, which one I suppose could debate if it's better or worse then just toasting your system. |
| #5 By 19992 (66.101.204.156) at 2/26/2004 8:28:10 AM |
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#4 Correct, They came out around 92 or 93 if I remember correctly. As far as the viruses these days being a joke, I'm not so sure I agree. Those that have caused the most damage or gotten the most publicity are not very well written, but this is not much of a change from the early 90s.
Looking back on the 90s, take Satan Bug written by Little Loc (back in 92 or so), it's a great polymorphic virus that never really did much in the USA, but spread like wildfire throughout South America (Argentina and Brazil primarily). Most Americans and Europeans are not familiar with the virus, whereas almost everybody remembers the Michelangelo virus. The difference in quality of code between the two is amazing. Satan Bug was never hyped on the television or in the papers, whereas Michelangelo was hyped throughout the US and Europe. Of course, John McAfee wasn't about to go public when Satan Bug came out either :) #5 Most viruses don't harm your system. Throughout the entire PC revolution, most viruses have not harmed the system. Actually some viruses are friendly enough (definately the exception), take a look at the KOH virus sometime.. |
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