How viruses are created

Until a few years ago, creating a virus required knowledge of a computer programming language. Today anyone with even a little programming knowledge can create a virus. Usually, though, misguided individuals who want to cause widespread, random damage to computers create viruses.

In the typical scenario, it is an individual, working alone, who writes a virus program and then introduces it onto a single computer, network server, or the Internet. Why? Ego, revenge, sabotage, and basic disgruntlement have all been cited as motivations. Recently, do-it-yourself "virus kits" have been popping up on the Internet, and macro scripts are becoming both easier to learn and more powerful, putting the capacity to engineer viruses in the hands of nearly everyone. In other words, no single, likely profile exists by which virus writers can be described or understood.

So whatever the reason one may have for writing a virus, the important thing is to make certain your company is not victimized, that data you are responsible for is safe, and that precious time is not wasted hunting down (and cleaning up after) viruses.