Who writes viruses?

It's a fact that most of the above-named culprits were in the 18-22-years-old age range when they did their dirty deeds. That does little or nothing to shatter the "dysfunctional teenager/1337 hax0r" image. However, "kid" vandalism of any sort, though often flashy and newsworthy, is usually not the greatest danger to any particular property. And why should this be different digitally? It isn't. While most people are watching out for the kids trying to spray-paint the walls, the real damage is often being done silently and on the inside.

Enter another stereotype: Think Dennis Nedry in the movie/book "Jurassic Park." This one is in his/her 30s or so, technically competent, and with passwords to get nice and deep into the system from the get-go. She or he could be a "disgruntled employee," in debt for whatever reasons, and/or needing extra cash, or even just doing a friend a favour. These people when (or IF!) caught are often handled "discreetly" for various reasons; it's much the same as any other white-collar criminal.

Recently, another "type" has been detected: the deliberate saboteur/thief with an organisation or even a government behind him or her. This was the case with the China/US "hacker wars" that raged in connection with the spy plane getting shot down a couple of years ago, and it very well may be the motive behind the wave of SoBig variants.

Some digital security experts believe that there are criminal elements attempting to gain control over high numbers of random PCs connected to the Internet, and the "home user" is actually being targeted for this purpose, rather than corporations.

Storm clouds on the horizon?
After years of "cat-and-mouse" with enterprise-level networks, either corporate or governmental, it has become clear that these large networks are becoming mostly well defended. The home user, on the other hand, has been fairly ignored for having less to plunder, even in large numbers. But the "zombie" has changed the attitude that home users aren’t worth attacking.