10+ reasons why people write viruses
The image of virus writers as intelligent kids with too much time on their hands resorting to digital vandalism to entertain themselves persists. Years ago, making such a guess about why people write viruses might have been accurate most of the time, but the world has moved on. The writers of viruses and other mobile malicious code are many and varied, and their reasons are as wide-ranging as they are themselves.
The forms of replicating mobile malicious code are multifarious, too. The most common forms are viruses, worms, and Trojans, though nonreplicating equivalents are gaining prominence as well. Cross-site scripting is an example of nonreplicating code that serves much the same purpose as self-replicating malicious code; it can affect millions without having to actually “infect” the victim’s computer at all.
I can’t claim to know why everybody who writes malicious code does so. I haven’t met them all. I can make some generalizations about reasons people might do so, though.
