Sarah Gordon, senior principal research engineer at Symantec Security Response, has hit out both at stereotypes that virus writers are socially inept, and at assumptions they have become hardened criminals in recent years. Gordon has studied the psychology of virus writers for more than a decade and found they varied considerably in age, education, income, interests and social skills. "Most of the adult males I've interviewed have had girlfriends. Female virus writers have had boyfriends. The stereotypes are wrong," Gordon said.
Equally, Gordon claims that only a very small percentage of viruses are created with the intention of criminal gain. Malicious code like Agobot and Bagle are intended to steal personal information or computer resources, so they get a lot of publicity. However, most "in-the-wild" viruses are created out of technical curiosity by nuisance virus writers who have no conception of the damage and inconvenience caused. "Virus writing is irresponsible but not difficult," she said.