What is the purpose behind viruses attacking your computer?

Question

I've had numerous viruses infect my computer and I'm wondering why? Once they infect (at least the ones I've gotten) slow the computer down so much you can't even navigate.

I don't keep ANY personal history on my PC (no banking, bill paying etc.) so why infect the PC? Aside from "cookies" I have nothing on my PC that I believe would be useful to anyone.

Answer 1

Okay this is a little long but please try to fight through it.

First, here's some basic history that's relevant to your questions.

Back in the day -- late 80's to the late 90's almost all viruses, malware, trojans, ect.. were intended to either do malicious damage or display some kind of political or personal view. The authors of these viruses were probably bright young kids or teenagers in developed countries that wanted to prove they could create such a program. Also, viruses back in those days pretty much had a totally different vector of infection. They mainly used floppies and bbs system to propagate.

Now focusing on your question "What is the purpose behind viruses attacking your computer?" These days the number one reason for viruses is financially motivated. 99% of all viruses developed today are engineered to make profit for the author. With the advent of the internet, online banking, paypal, ebay, ect.. it makes it ideal for malicious software to take advantage of these services.

The authors that create these viruses are usually from developing countries and posses extremely talented skills. The problem is that these individuals can not get legitimate jobs in the country so they have to resort to cybercrime -- thus they create viruses, maleware, trojan's, ect.. that target your financial / personal information for financial gain.

That is the purpose behind the viruses of today.

Hope that helps.

Answer 2

2

Answer 3

I have no desire to contradict any of the above answers, I have read them all and the answers are all good. It is that there is one thing that often gets over-looked, the really big mistakes made by people who can't program a computer but have studied a programming language. Programming a computer is like teaching in education, they are both secondary skills. The primary skill of a Teacher is the subject they are teaching IE Mathematics, Physics and so on. When comes to programming a computer it is essential to have a good understanding of mathematics and Boolean arithmetic just to start with. Learning a programming language is easy, try writing a simple Text Adventure game, that's hard - a serious piece of AI is a Text Adventure game. What I am trying to get at is this, so-called programmers can make as many mistakes se they like and if that makes a mess of the computer then hard luck on us. There is no way you can take then to court and sue because they can always hide behind the idea that you, me or whomever have some how managed to get a virus and their program works perfectly. This really, truly, honestly annoys me. A virus can be a program that has been created by an incompetent programmer, or at least the incompetent programmer can hide behind the virus.

Answer 4

The hacker or person that sends the virus does not know what data you have in your system, until they have broken in and take control. They could give a damn if they destroy your pc while infecting your pc.

If you are running a really good antivirus/antispyware your pc should not be slowed down when you have removed the virus. If you are using Nortons, then that is the reason as Nortons, is a hugh resource hog, fails to find the majority of viruses, and if one if found fails to remove 100%.

If you want a really good free antivirus, as you can only use one or you will have serious conflict with your system, remove what you know use an install the free version of Avast, free for home personal use. http://www.avast.com

Superantispyware is excellent an I use myself. Download the free version. Well known to find what all other miss. Plus you will get daily auto. updates. http://www.superantispyware.com

Minddoctor, France

Answer 5

the reason why your computer slows down is because the virus is doing something in the background that you cannot see. the hacker could careless your experience, he's using your computer at his leisure.


why infect a computer?? Information, fun, and control. Even if there's nothing useful on the sucker, I could still use it for a DoS attack.

Answer 6

To gain control attackers want Computers everywhere to become part of their bot nets they are paid by the Mafia infect as many as they can then the mob sells and leases computers to clients who use them for their own purposes ddosing, phishing, spamming etc.

Answer 7

Just plain meanness.