September 10, 2004 10:18 AM PDT

The Trojan resume: MyDoom authors encode job plea

Cheeky virus writers have put a secret message in the latest versions of the MyDoom e-mail worm asking antivirus vendors for a job.

MyDoom.V and MyDoom.U contain a malicious e-mail attachment that attempts to download a backdoor Trojan horse called Surila if the recipient tries to open the infected file.

Also secretly embedded inside the malicious code is a message to the antivirus industry: "We searching 4 work in AV industry."

It is not clear if the job request is entirely serious but if the virus authors thought that the antivirus industry would be impressed with their handiwork, they've opened a whole different can of worms.

Graham Clulely, senior technology consultant for antivirus firm Sophos, said no one in the industry would "touch them with a bargepole."

"It's very simple--if you write a virus, we will never, ever employ you," he said in a statement. "Not only is it deeply unethical to write malicious code, but it raises issues as to whether you could ever be trusted to develop the software which protects millions of users around the world from attack every day."

He also said the skills used to write viruses and fight viruses are very different. "Virus writers don't care if their code crashes or causes incompatibilities--you don't have to be a genius to write a virus."

Andy McCue reported from London for Silicon.com.

10 comments

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Great way to advertise.
I've robbed 11 banks... and I'm looking for work in a vault. Anyone want to hire me?

/sarcasm off

Did they really think that would work?
Posted by (54 comments )
Reply Link Flag
Maybe...
I think Microsoft is hiring. Ethics and abilities
are not a priority there.
Posted by Johnny Mnemonic (376 comments )
Link Flag
Its all about the right approach!
Hi,
What happens people may get wrongly influenced by the media which should not happen.Movies like Swordfish,Matrix,Catch me if you can etc are not meant for people to be misunderstand them.They are nice movies.Why these viruses are created to waste the resources?Cyber Circus(The talents of certain people are equivalent to the talents of people performing big Circus stunts) experts should use their talents for the betterment of the Computing World rather than destroying it.There should be more platforms which are meant for the good where people can show their skills and then they can prove that they are worthwhile to get the jobs or start their own firms which can give jobs.
rgds,
Anil Alias.
Posted by anilalias (16 comments )
Reply Link Flag
correction
Oops!
Correction:
Movies like Swordfish,Matrix,Catch me if you can etc should not be misunderstood.

-Anil Alias.
Posted by anilalias (16 comments )
Reply Link Flag
"AV industry" = porno industry in Japan
Maybe these guys want to direct porno videos? In Japan, "AV"
means pornographic videos (a bastard mangling of the
abbreviation for "audio visual").
Posted by Not Bugged (196 comments )
Reply Link Flag
Virus Writers Are Funny
Did they leave an address as well? hehehe I liked that story. Very funny
Posted by (1 comment )
Reply Link Flag
And how are you supposed to hire them?
And how do they expect someone to contact them to hire them even if someone was interested without letting the feds know who they are?

Silly wabbit.
Posted by Fray9 (547 comments )
Reply Link Flag
 

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