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Comment by libeclipse | Hacker News Reader

You make it sound like some professional outfit. Is it really like that? I would've thought that it's a bunch of teens.

I doubt it. This is organised crime motivated by money (which is usually something adults do); the very fact that the program tries to detect whether it's being sandboxed indicates a certain level of professionalism.

You think a bunch of teens orchestrated a global attack on this scale? Surely this is satire and you dropped the /s right?

>...orchestrated a global attack on this scale?

Was it "orchestrated", or did the worm just spread randomly and opportunistically?

My bet is a bunch of teens. Not really orchestrated as much as exploited a vulnerability amplified by p2p connection, which led to worldwide scale.

By the look and UX of the virus (yes there's a UX there too), they do seem to have a better grasp than most script kiddies, who usually can barely extend whatever script they've got.

Hard to say. It could be an organized crime gang, terrorists, state actor, someone not making enough money legitimately in a 3rd-world country, bored middle-aged techie or teenager wanting to "get away" with something. There may or may not be levels of management, contractor(s) or multiple participants. (Shady "businesses" most definitely have subcontractors. Heck, I know of someone whom got their degrees paid for by a shady illegal gambling outfit.)

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