What are Careware; In the days of cyber wars and cyber mafia, it is hard for us to remember that there were viruses and worms that were just research projects or hoaxes. Back then, there was no financial incentive to sit down and write malicious software. Some programmers explored the possibility of developing "useful" viruses or tried to deal with minimizing the negative effects of their creations. This is how they appeared Careware.
In some exceptional cases, viruses were created to get rid of dangerous malware or to optimize computer resources. Let's take a look at 5 of the most notable "careware"(Unlike malware) of the past.
5. The Creeper (1971)
The first known computer virus in history was really an academic research, and as you can imagine, it was harmless. It was named The Creeper, and appeared in 1971. It was written by an employee of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency of the US Department of Defense. This primitive worm looked for other computers on the network, which networks were then very small. When it discovered the computer in the neighboring office, it would copy itself to it and display the following message: “I'M THE CREEPER: CATCH ME IF YOU CAN.” If o Creeper he discovered that he was on one computer just "jumping" on the next. But it did not cause any damage to the system.
4. Stoned (1988)
Stoned was another virus whose main goal was to forward a message to the user. 1988 was first detected in New Zealand. It was a boot virus that caused modifications to the disk boot sector rather than hacking executable files. Just like Creeper, that is, it did not cause any damage to the computer. It just displayed a message on the screen during boot time: "Your computer is now stoned." Some samples also contained more radical messages such as "Legalize Marijuana." It seems that the message finally reached its desired destination (ie to US politicians) in 2013.
3. HPS (1997)
Ο “ιός φάρσα” είναι ένας τίτλος που πάει επάξια στον HPS, ένα πρόγραμμα που δημιουργήθηκε ειδικά για το λειτουργικό σύστημα των Windows 98, αλλά, στην πραγματικότητα, κυκλοφόρησε πολλούς μήνες πριν κυκλοφορήσει το λειτουργικό. Ένα από τα περίεργα του ιού ήταν ότι λειτουργούσε μόνο τα Σάββατα: μία φορά την εβδομάδα έκανε ανάστροφη σε όλα τα γραφικά bitmap που υπήρχαν στον υπολογιστή. Ήταν δηλαδή σαν να βλέπατε τις pictures in the mirror.
HP extension Careware
2. The Cruncher (1993)
Cruncher was a typical virus of the nineties. It hacked and infected executables using an algorithm (which was then stolen by the popular DIET tool) to compress the data and pack the infected file, so the infected file was smaller than the original file, but it remained functional. This freed up space on the user's hard disk.
1. Welchia or otherwise Nachi (2003)
Welchia is a powerful contender for the title of "most useful worm" or a real Careware. In 2003, when his personal firewalls and regular updates software ήταν εξαιρετικά ασυνήθιστες, ήταν πιθανό ότι μόλις συνδέσετε ένα καλώδιο δικτύου ο υπολογιστής σας θα θα μπορούσε να μολυνθεί. Αυτό ήταν μια από τις πιο σοβαρές αδυναμίες στις συνιστώσες του δικτύου των Windows και χρησιμοποιούνταν από πολλά worms. Ένα από τα πιο διαδεδομένα κακόβουλα προγράμματα αυτού του τύπου ήταν το Lovesan, γνωστό και σαν Blaster, το οποίο μπορούσε να παραλύσει όλο το δίκτυο. Ο ιός Welchia χρησιμοποιούσε ακριβώς τα ίδια vulnerabilities to infect a computer, yet his subsequent actions were highly unusual. It scanned the infected system and when it found the Blaster virus, it stopped its operation and deleted it. However, Welchia's mission did not end here. After eliminating the malware, the program checked if there was any system update to fix the vulnerability. If not, the virus started downloading from the manufacturer's site. The Welchia virus would self-destruct when it completed its mission.
Today, 100% of viruses are written for only one purpose: to steal money or confidential data.
Not to cause any misunderstanding even harmless or "useful" viruses are unwanted. They can cause damage due to a programming error.
"Today, almost 100% of viruses are written for a single purpose: to steal money or confidential data," said Alexander Gostev, head of security experts at the Global Research & Analysis Team. Kaspersky Lab.
