Presenting myself (Part II) - Objective of this blog

Hi, malware collectors of the world!

I will start this blog entry replying the pendant question from previous post: Why is not possible nowadays to become a traditional collector?

The main reason that makes it not possible is because malware collectors have very large collections, containing over 400k and 500k unique samples, therefore someone that starts collecting can not join the trading game.

Obviously anyone can collect malware but not at the level that traditional collectors reached.

Continuing with my presentation...

Between 1994 and 1996 I was related to BBS, specially Dark Node, the BBS where I was SysOp, and Internet. In 1996 Dark Node closed and since then I have been related to the virus/trading scene through Internet.

Since 1994 I exchanged viruses with other collectors at Internet. I also got new viruses directly from virus coders. Being a 29A member helped me greatly to get new stuff.

Around 1998 I created a website dedicated to the virus exchange and the virus scene in general. I named it "Virus Trading Center".

Not much time later I thought it would be a good idea to create a small group formed by the best collectors, so I explained my idea to ShadSeek, Slage Hammer and Tally. They agreeded and we formed a group we named "Virus Trading Group". Some time later Cicatrix also joined to the group.

As IRC was the meeting point for virus collectors, around the same dates, in 1998, I decided to create my own IRC channel. I named it "vx-vtc" in reference to virus trading center.

For long time most of the collectors of the world joined there to meet and arrange exchanges.

But things don´t last forever and after two years, more or less, internal problems inside Virus Trading Group leaded to split up the group. Some collectors also decided to leave vx-vtc IRC channel and create their own channel.

Anyway the period between year 2000 and 2006 was a good one for exchange. As I commented in previous post, collectors came and collectors left. Some of them were good friends and we had a nice time trading together. Spending time at IRC chatting about anything was the real fun of collecting.

From 2006 until today the number of collectors have been decreasing. Old collectors like VirusP left the trading scene and nobody came to replace the empty places.

2008 was the year when collectors definetively left IRC as meeting point.

A few years ago I closed Virus Trading Center website and decided to create a forum for malware collectors. I named it "Malware Collecting Forum". The forum was probably created a bit late. It appeared when only a few collectors were remaining. The participation in the forum was so low that I decided to close it to the public.

I always liked to be connected in some manner to other collectors and share with them my experiences, my tools, ... First I did it through my web site. At the same time I created an IRC channel. After my site closed I created a forum for collectors.

Right now IRC channel still exist but nobody joins there. Website is gone and forum too. So I decided to give a try with a blog.

What´s the objective of this blog?

I will bring here the malware collecting procedures I consider the right ones. I also will comment the tools (third part or my own ones) to do collecting tasks.

That´s more or less what you can expect from this blog. Anyway I´m open to critics, suggestions, whatever. So don´t hesitate to contact me and send your comments.