Computer virus

:This article is concerned with malicious computer programs; for other uses of the term see virus (disambiguation). An extensive treatment of the pluralization of the word "virus" in English is found in the article Plural of virus.

Why people create computer viruses

Unlike biological viruses, computer viruses do not simply evolve by themselves, except in the cases where copying errors and recombination have led to actual evolution of computer viruses; however, these cases are very rare compared to the rapid generation of new malware by human programmers. They cannot come into existence spontaneously, nor can they be created by bugs in regular programs. They are deliberately created by programmers, or by people who use virus creation software.

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Virus writers can have various reasons for creating and spreading malware. Viruses have been written as research projects, pranks, vandalism, to attack the products of specific companies, to distribute political messages, and financial gain from identity theft or spyware. Some virus writers consider their creations to be works of art, and see virus writing as a creative hobby. Additionally, many virus writers oppose deliberately destructive payload routines. Some viruses were intended as "good viruses". They spread improvements to the programs they infect, or delete other viruses. These viruses are, however, quite rare, still consume system resources, may accidentally damage systems they infect, and, on occasion, have become infected and acted as vectors for malicious viruses. Moreover, they normally operate without asking for permission of the owner of the computer. Since self-replicating code causes many complications, it is questionable if a well-intentioned virus can ever solve a problem in a way which is superior to a regular program that does not replicate itself.

Related Topics:
Vandalism - Spyware

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Releasing computer viruses (as well as worms) is a crime in most jurisdictions.

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See also BBC News' Why people write computer viruses

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