Viruses in Review: How Curiosity Can Doom Users

By Jay Lyman

Date: 02/11/2002

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Many of last year's biggest Internet threats featured new techniques that combined computer viruses with hacking, attacked via several different avenues, and contained more complex code than ever. But the biggest threat to Internet users, some experts say, continues to be their own curiosity.

Security and antivirus officials say that the main contributors to spreading "malware" -- code that corrupts or controls PCs -- are users who click on enticing attachments or who, in some cases, even request that viruses be sent to them.

Experts warn those who are curious about the latest worms or hacker tools that the code is becoming more and more complicated. They also urge users to be cautious, and to be wary of enticing messages, promises of pictures or other tricks that could cause them to lose control of their PC and their data.

Wary of Worms

Virus-fighters have put out the word that computer worms are not to be toyed with and that the big antivirus firms should not give out samples to unqualified people, senior director of Symantec Security Response Vincent Weafer told NewsFactor Network. "With a worm or virus, it's just too dangerous," Weafer said. "It can get out of your environment. It's live. It's dynamic."

Weafer said more people may have been able to dissect and study the malware of a few years ago -- comparatively simple "macro viruses" and worms written in Visual Basic script (VBS) -- but the latest threats represent much more sophisticated programming. "Now, it's not five lines of code," Weafer said. "That's where it becomes much more dangerous."

Viruses Evolve

Trend Micro global education director David Perry told NewsFactor that only about 1,000 of the 60,000 to 100,000 viruses in the world have actually infected people's computers. "Most are badly-modified copies of older ones," he said. Among the more complex worms -- many of which have succeeded in infecting large numbers of home and business PCs -- there are only around 100 people in the world capable of understanding them, according to Weafer, who referred to the Nimda worm. "It had multiple components, four attack vectors; it spread via e-mail and networks," Weafer said. "It was written in a higher-level language."

Same Old Tricks

However more complex the recent computer worms and attacks have become, virus writers continue to use the same enticements to dupe users into activating the code: sex, love, friendship, playfulness and more. Worms also masquerade as security bulletins, tricking users into running malware that is supposedly beneficial. Weafer said users often open a virus or activate it thinking that their own computing environment is separated from the Internet, or as virus researchers call it, "the wild." "People think it's a virtual world, but [a worm] can get out and cause monetary damage," he said.

No 'Naked Wife'

Trend Micro's Perry, who blamed Hollywood versions of computer viruses that are animated, create smoke and fire and are "fun" and "dramatic," said users must put caution in front of curiosity.

"They are never worth activating," he said. "With the I Love You virus, there was no love; with the Anna Kournikova ( - ) virus, there was no picture of Anna Kournikova; with the Naked Wife [virus], there was no naked wife."

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