[chickadee]

I’ve often wondered what these virus purveyors get out of creating this kind of havoc. The best answer I can come up with is they are trying to sell anti-virus software:)

Up until a couple of years ago, I worked at a major university. It received more than 3 million attempted virus attacks a week, keeping their IT department very busy. To get out in front of the onslaught, they installed McAfee on every computer and even updated the dat files automatically. One of the bad side effects for the average user was that often emails with attachments were rerouted directly to the trash or spam file without ever being seen by the recipient. With their T3 fiber optic connections, universities are a favorite target of hackers.

[netguide]

Here is a beefed up browser that should help to eliminate some of these problems for all Freepers.
http://www.kace.com/products/freetools/secure-browser/

[driftdiver]

Mostly they do it to steal data which they can sell.

[brytlea]

Stealing data, and I’ve also heard they use your computer to launch denial of service attacks (which I think are for taking down systems —maybe govt things?) I’m talking like I have a clue, which I don’t! Im just repeating what I have been told.