If you are a beginner in this field, you may be curious to what
a virus/trojan is. Perhaps you heard about it through some BBS, or
known someone who had their system crashed by one. Well, this is for
you.
In the Trojan War, way back when, there existed the Trojan
Horse, right? Well, nowadays, there is a modern version of the Trojan
Horse existing is software. The modern, computer, Trojan horse is
really simple, a psychedelic hacker implants destructive code into a
normal (or fake) file. This modified/fake file, when executed will
destroy or remove something from the host computer, usually format
the hard drive, delete all files, or something similar. In order to
distribute the corrupt phile, the hacker goes and does one or more of
various things; depending on how deranged this individual is (hehe).
These things are covered in the following section.
A virus, in normal terms is an organism which spreads malign
from one host to another, transmitting itself through biological
lines so that both the previous host and the future host become
infected with the virus. Today, there are computer viruses, and just
like biological viruses, they spread from file to file, host to host,
infecting everything it "sees." These computer viruses can either
destroy the code it infects immediately, or over a period of time,
corrupt or damage the host system it thrives upon. For example, a
virus hidden in a file on a BBS could be downloaded to a host system.
Then, the user who downloaded it executes the file, which executes
normally (as seen by the operator), but at the same time, the virus
attacks other files, and infects them, so that each file owned by the
user becomes infected with the virus. Then, at a given time or when
something is fulfilled by the host system, the virus becomes a trojan
and destroys, encrypts, or damages everything available, infected or
un-infected. In general, a virus is a timed trojan that duplicates
itself to other files, which, in effect sustains the virus's life-
span in the computer world, as more host systems are infiltrated by
the disease.
Now that I've given you a description of the computer virus and
trojan, we can go onto more complex things... well, not really...
Ok, now, let's trace the life of a virus. A virus/trojan is born
in the mind of some hacker/programmer that decides to develop
something out of the ordinary, not all viruses/trojans are
destructive, often, some are amusing! Anyway, the hacker programs the
code in his/her favorite language; viruses can be developed with
virtually any language, BASIC, Pascal, C, Assembly, Machine Code,
Batch files, and many more. Then, when the disease is complete and
tested, the hacker intentionally infects or implants the code into a
host file, a file that would be executed by another un-suspecting
user, somewhere out there. Then, the hacker does one or more of many
things to distribute his baby. The hacker can upload the infected
file to a local BBS (or many local/LD BBS's), give the infected file
to a computer enemy, upload the infected file to his/her workplace
(if desired...hehe), or execute the phile on spot, on the host
system. Then, the virus, gets downloaded or executed, it infiltrates
the host system, and either infects other files, or trashes the
system instantly. Eventually, the infected system's user gets smart
and either trashes his system manually and starts fresh, or some mega-
technical user attempts to recover and remove the virus from all of
the infected files (a horrendous job). Then, the virus dies, or other
host systems that were previously infected continue, and accidentally
upload or hand out infected files, spreading the disease. Isn't that
neat?
Now, to answer your questions; I already explained what a
virus/trojan is and how they are developed/destroyed. Now, where do
these suckers come from? Why, some hacker's computer room, of course!
All viruses and trojans begin at some computer where some maniacal
hacker programs the code and implants it somewhere. Then, you ask,
why do they do this? Why hack? Why phreak? Why make stupid pyro piles
of shit? Think about it... This is an ART! Just like the rest. While
Hacking delivers theft of services, Phreaking delivers theft of
services, Cracking/Pirating delivers theft of software and copyright
law breaks, Pyro delivers unlawful arson/explosives, Viruses and
Trojans vandalize (yes, legally it is vandalism and destruction of
property) computer systems and files. Also, these are great to get
back at arch-computer enemies (for you computer nerds out there), and
just wreak havoc among your computer community. Yeah, PHUN at it's
best...
