I don’t usually post work related news, but this new threat has really caught my eye…It all started by emails presenting the virus and its “potential” that every one took for hoaxes at first. When taking a better look, the threat turned out to be real.

This nice little malware (malicious software) does what you would have most: takes all your .doc, .txt and .pdf files and others of this type, then, on the 3rd of the month, it deletes them. Imagine how nice it will be to find yourself without an important paper due the next day? I would really go nuts to be honest!

Luckily, all antivirus products are detecting and disinfecting it by now (Even Norton :D). But it got me wondering as it did before. Some say it’s AV software producers who create these viruses of all kinds to keep the business going. So I had a little chat with a colleague of mine from the Virus Lab, whose job is practically adding signatures for new threats.

As he said, most new variants of malware are created by socially impaired people who want to feel like they control the world and usually consist in old variants that are copied and then a few code lines are changed. Voila! New virus! Real threats, like the one I’ve just told you about, are quite rare. Those who create such “masterpieces” are the real smart ones, and although I could admire their intelligence at a certain point, I’d have to say, why the heck did you pick on me with your new cool virus?

Viruses take it all out on normal users mostly. Windows users…cause as you know, Linux viruses are just a few. I don’t know who creates such nice little programs, but if I ever met one, I would take his precious malware and stick it up his ass!