Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

IAmA a malware coder and botnet operator, AMA

reddit.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

191–200 of 203 posts

Re: IAmA a malware coder and botnet operator, AMA

#191

Post by john61 »

tetha wrote: post #164
da_n wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Security_through_obscurity

I don't see the relevance. Linux is no good target, because there are not many linux boxes compared to windows/mac and because 100 linux boxes might require 10 different ways to attack them, while 100 windows boxes might require 1 or 2. There is nothing obscure here, just diversity.

Diversity is always a good tacit in defeating pest. Learn from nature / biology. Monocultures are unstable and have to be superficially stabilized with great effort.

Re: IAmA a malware coder and botnet operator, AMA

#192

Post by btilly »

muyuu wrote: post #176
white_devil wrote: post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We're already well on our way to getting nowhere with this. > Not-so-obviously, if I had qualms about my job I wouldn't be doing it. Some people are for sale, I'm not. So participating in the financial industry driving the Western world's economy off a cliff is fine, but having to work with .NET is where you draw the line? > I know these sites. They're rather juvenile These sites discuss (the economic) Reality, and w…

I consider my job not only not to be bad, but GOOD for society. My job helps making a level field and removes the need of extra people working in trying to scalp away from market fluctuations. I consider my job to be good in the sense that the alternative to be worse. Quite like a free market I consider it to be good, because it's the MUCH better alternative to a CAPTIVE market. Because that's in fact the only altern…

Funny fact. A lot of people in finance seems to believe that they are making things more efficient and removing people. And yet the finance industry as a whole continues to grow rapidly relative to the rest of the economy. Also their share of profits relative to companies in the "real" economy is at historic highs.

I submit that you're doing the exact opposite of what you think you are. When you make financial manipulation require fewer highly paid people, you increase profit margins. The primary effect of this is to increase the volume of such activity.

Re: IAmA a malware coder and botnet operator, AMA

#193

Post by white_devil »

muyuu wrote: post #176
white_devil wrote: post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We're already well on our way to getting nowhere with this. > Not-so-obviously, if I had qualms about my job I wouldn't be doing it. Some people are for sale, I'm not. So participating in the financial industry driving the Western world's economy off a cliff is fine, but having to work with .NET is where you draw the line? > I know these sites. They're rather juvenile These sites discuss (the economic) Reality, and w…

I consider my job not only not to be bad, but GOOD for society. My job helps making a level field and removes the need of extra people working in trying to scalp away from market fluctuations. I consider my job to be good in the sense that the alternative to be worse. Quite like a free market I consider it to be good, because it's the MUCH better alternative to a CAPTIVE market. Because that's in fact the only altern…

> I consider my job not only not to be bad, but GOOD for society.

Really now? Wow. Wasn't expecting that. Tell me, again, how exactly is it good for society?

> My job helps making a level field and removes the need of extra people working in trying to scalp away from market fluctuations.

This smells like a rationalization of HFT. Is that what you do? It is quite popular among the HN folks after all.

> I consider my job to be good in the sense that the alternative to be worse.

That's quite an achievement in the art of Rationalization. In a similar vein, I guess shooting someone in the head is better than torturing them to death.

> Quite like a free market I consider it to be good, because it's the MUCH better alternative to a CAPTIVE market.

Umm.. so your job's goodness is comparable to a free market being good by way of being better than a captive one? Care to elaborate?

> Because that's in fact the only alternative.

A captive market is the only alternative to a free market.. or your job? What's the point here?

> The freest market is not the least nor the most regulated, it's the best regulated.

This seems to make sense, but how is it related to what you do?

> You've very conveniently cherry-picked my criticism about them.

Well, your only criticism of those sites was that they're "rather juvenile", which didn't leave much room for cherry-picking. But of course, "cherry-picking" is a common accusation on HN.

> That's the way they're redacted, the public they cater to the most and very likely the personality of the main contributors.

Redacted how?

> But you're missing the point that it's not ONLY about that.

Actually, I didn't miss that detail in what you said. I just wanted to see if you'd "go there". You didn't disappoint.

You see, a job not being only about money is just as blindingly obvious as the fact that not every single goddamn black guy is a better dancer than your average white guy.

> This point is related to the post because I'd actually take this job over most other jobs taking a significant pay cut.

Glad you cleared that up, I was starting to wonder. But what else would you say, especially at this point? Of course you're going to make that claim, because for you, this has been all about rationalizing what you do right from the start.

> My sister is a doctor, I think my job is more positive for society than even that, it affects way more people.

That's quite an audacious load of bullshit right there.

Yes, your job has far-reaching potential consequences, including - but not limited to - collapsing economies and countries along with them, causing massive loss of wealth for us little folks, social unrest, chaos on the streets, people killing each other for food, power-grabs by totalitarian forces, and so on.

Before you start foaming at the mouth, note the word "potential" there.

Here's a first-hand account of the consequences of hyperinflation in Argentina: http://ferfal.blogspot.com/2008/10/thoughts-on-urban-surviva...

Hyperinflation is certainly one of the potential consequences for what the financial industry is doing, and you are helping them.

Re: IAmA a malware coder and botnet operator, AMA

#194

Post by gaius »

btilly wrote: post #192
muyuu wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I consider my job not only not to be bad, but GOOD for society. My job helps making a level field and removes the need of extra people working in trying to scalp away from market fluctuations. I consider my job to be good in the sense that the alternative to be worse. Quite like a free market I consider it to be good, because it's the MUCH better alternative to a CAPTIVE market. Because that's in fact the only altern…

Funny fact. A lot of people in finance seems to believe that they are making things more efficient and removing people. And yet the finance industry as a whole continues to grow rapidly relative to the rest of the economy. Also their share of profits relative to companies in the "real" economy is at historic highs. I submit that you're doing the exact opposite of what you think you are. When you make financial manipu…

Same is true of the software industry, y'know.

Re: IAmA a malware coder and botnet operator, AMA

#195

Post by diminish »

john61 wrote: post #191
tetha wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't see the relevance. Linux is no good target, because there are not many linux boxes compared to windows/mac and because 100 linux boxes might require 10 different ways to attack them, while 100 windows boxes might require 1 or 2. There is nothing obscure here, just diversity.

Diversity is always a good tacit in defeating pest. Learn from nature / biology. Monocultures are unstable and have to be superficially stabilized with great effort.

similarly the guy says, he creates variations of the code in order to avoid detection. a world where hunter and the hunt all diversify.

Re: IAmA a malware coder and botnet operator, AMA

#196

Post by btilly »

gaius wrote: post #194
btilly wrote: post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Funny fact. A lot of people in finance seems to believe that they are making things more efficient and removing people. And yet the finance industry as a whole continues to grow rapidly relative to the rest of the economy. Also their share of profits relative to companies in the "real" economy is at historic highs. I submit that you're doing the exact opposite of what you think you are. When you make financial manipu…

Same is true of the software industry, y'know.

Oh, absolutely. However what the software industry enables more of is often stuff that I think is good.

For instance I have 2 contracts right now. One will help people find a college program that they want, and the other will help people find a job that they want. These are causes whose value proposition is pretty clear to me. I don't need to justify my work on the basis of, "I'm getting rid of people who do what I do." Rather I can say, "I'm helping good things happen for people."

Thus I don't see a problem in the fact that my successes create more demand for people like me.

Re: IAmA a malware coder and botnet operator, AMA

#197

Post by cerebrum »

rosstafarian wrote: post #115
K2h wrote: post #56

I very much enjoyed the reading of his comments - I pulled a few of his that others may find interesting. [polymorphism code - to hide virus signature] Randomness is your friend, make your own crypter and make it so fucking random on every compile, that AV reverse engineers kill themselfs (HINT: randomize the crypters sourcecode using perl scripts) [polymorphism code - to hide virus signature] I started coding about…

the statement about GMER is not true. I've seen GMER miss MANY rootkits/etc. As far as catching and removing rootkits that other most av's tend to misss i've had by far the most success with combofix(which includes a GMER scan). Nothing will catch 0day rootkits 100% of the time, once a system is compromised it's best to format and start from scratch (or restore from backup if you're positive it's clean, but make sure…

I would like to use GMER/combofix but how can I kow that I can trust them and that they don't contain malware?

Re: IAmA a malware coder and botnet operator, AMA

#198

Post by tripzilch »

itsboring wrote: post #133
AJ007 wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Kind of sad, the last time I built a PC I had to have the hardware within 2 days. Newegg said the order went through and then the next day I got an e-mail to call and verify my order. I cancelled the order, found everything on Amazon for the same price and had it shipped overnight it. I don't know how many times now I've gone to an e-commerce site and the stupid Mastercard-Securecode has popped up, or my order has be…

I've also shifted all my business from newegg to amazon for that reason and also this one: newegg's packing is horrible. What am I supposed to do with an enormous pile of packing peanuts from the box that's three times larger than it needs to be? If you want to collapse the box, good luck pouring all those peanuts into a garbage bag without getting them everywhere. And if you don't have access to a dumpster, you get…

Bean bag chair!

Re: IAmA a malware coder and botnet operator, AMA

#199

Post by tripzilch »

vibrunazo wrote: post #86
sakai wrote: post #3

Well, clearly this guy's moral compass is a bit out of whack, but the IAmA does offer some fascinating insights into this world...

I'm pretty sure that just by having done that IAmA alone, that guy has already done greater good to humanity than 99% of all human beings on this planet ever will. Questioning his subjective opinions on morals sounds a bit of a waste of energy after this.

> I'm pretty sure that just by having done that IAmA alone, that guy has already done greater good to humanity than 99% of all human beings on this planet ever will.

Can you explain? I really don't understand? Because it's making people more security-conscious or something?

Re: IAmA a malware coder and botnet operator, AMA

#200

Post by muyuu »

btilly wrote: post #196
gaius wrote: post #194

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same is true of the software industry, y'know.

Oh, absolutely. However what the software industry enables more of is often stuff that I think is good. For instance I have 2 contracts right now. One will help people find a college program that they want, and the other will help people find a job that they want. These are causes whose value proposition is pretty clear to me. I don't need to justify my work on the basis of, "I'm getting rid of people who do what I d…

I'm doing quite tangible stuff myself as well.

On the one hand, I'm helping people preserving their pension funds by detecting risky situations early. These people don't want highly speculative markets or high profits, they don't want their savings protected from the money printing machine among other things.

I'm also helping decide producers what should they be doing next, to meet demand and so people don't suffer shortages. I don't work for a bucket shop or a commodity hoarding fund. I help supply meet demand and more people have their needs met and better met than otherwise thanks to people like me. There would be a lot more poverty in the world without this industry. In fact, there was a lot more poverty in the world as a direct result of the lack of this level of commerce in the past. It's not our duty to stop the poorest regions of the world from over-breeding, though, which is the main reason for poverty nowadays (including pockets of poverty in wealthy nations).

Post reply on HN