Researchers at AVG got an interesting visitor while analyzing a virus. The virus programmer popped in for a chat.
In the AVG labs, they had installed a virus (that impostors itself as an instructional video for the new video game, Diablo 3) to take a look at what it does and see how it works. While doing so, the virus programmer used a chat built into the virus to peek his head in at what they were doing. “What are you doing? Are you researching my trojan?” was written in Chinese in a window that popped up in the middle of the screen. The back doors installed by the virus included the ability to see their screen, monitor keyboard and mouse input; even the ability to turn on and view any attached web-cam. After some banter, the remote hacker shut down the virtual machine to punctuate the end of the conversation.
This tale, while amusing, also holds a warning – be careful while on the internet. Make sure you have anti-virus installed and up to date. Be critical of any download and its source. Viruses have left the humble origins of little pranks like Cookie Monster long in the past. The complexity and features of viruses have risen to mind boggling proportions with the ease of internet availability.