Why do some people create "junk" programs (i.e., computer viruses)?

Yes, but don't be ignorant. The virusmakers which actually make viruses which are hard to delete, are money hunting businessmen. It might be that for normal people it seem that they are only made to annoy you. But that is not the case. The "businessmen" want to get money from internet. In ways like we get from mylot. But instead of honest posting. They take matters to their own hands and force the adds to the innocent users and squeeze the money out of the pockets. There might be also these virusmakers which just make them for fun. But they are called "scriptkiddies" if you have firewall and virus protection there is no way "scriptkiddie" can do any harm to your computer. Always remember. Internet is a big business.

Not sure if I understand your meaning, but it looks as though you're insinuating that the security vendors themselves are writing the malware. That's silly. No singular antivirus product can keep up with what's out there now, because bot herders are using more polymorphic code now, and code of higher quality. The Internet is very big, and it takes time to track down a criminal, if he/she is ever caught at all. Here's a story of one man who was recently convicted of infecting 250,000 machines, a first for the U.S.: http://newsfeedresearcher.com/data/articles_t45/idt2007.11.10.01.13.36.html There are rogue security companies out there, but most of the names you haven't heard. Large companies like Grisoft, Symantec, and McAfee make far too much money already to need to cheat. And furthermore, they're too high-profile to engage in such fraud; there are plenty of honest people in the world, and an enormous company like Symantec has far too much to lose. If you disagree with me, why don't you present me with an article or something to prove your position? Personally, I think you've been fooled into believing a dissatisfied customer's myth. "Believe none of what you hear, and half of what you see," that's what they say. Even in church, we follow along in our pew Bibles as scripture is being read, so we know we're being fed the bread of the Word, not hogwash.

santuccie, I agree with you. Security software companies such as Symantec, McAffee, etc won't jeopardize their good brand. People tend to talk and talk. If someone knows that such companies are creating "junk" programs, their good brand will absolutely tarnish. Let's assume that there are no "junk" programs. But those security software companies are still needed in order to secure online businesses, networking, etc.

Yes, I also wish them stop doing it. I am sick of buying anti-virus software.

See my responses to #4 and #5. There are rogue security companies out there, but they're not the big names like Symantec and McAfee. They're the ones who download an adware to your machine, then a "warning" box pops up and tells you you're infected and should download this program to get it cleaned. But even these people are not the ones creating Storm worm and MPack. These people are in full violation of the law, and don't want you to know who they are.

See my responses to #4 and #5. Look up the word "botnet," and you'll know more about what's really going on.