I'm learning more than I want to know about how to resurrect a computer after it's been assaulted by a virus. There are patches to be downloaded, reboot disks to be prayed over and gingerly inserted, triage decisions to be made about which wounded files will be saved, which abandoned to their fate. The particular virus on my computer is a strain of Klez (Broomeman can point you to some helpful links for fixing this), which apparently will attempt to overwrite all of my files with zeros in the next few days if I don't get it removed.

Dealing with this has naturally led me to think about what kind of people deliberately create these things. There are number of explanations, and I suppose they have some validity: crackers (if this term is unfamiliar, see the note at the bottom of this post) are creative, rebellious types who seek the challenge of developing code that can overcome intricate electronic defenses; some are keyboard thrillseekers who enjoy seeing their pets gain international notoriety. The image emerges of brooding, intelligent wizards, brimming over with endearing personality quirks and limitless passion for their work.

But then I think about their victims. People who will lose email from love ones who have since passed away. Or perhaps a poem they wrote for their children. Or a love letter. Or a novel they've been working on for years, in the brief spaces between raising their children and working and supporting their church and living meaningful lives. Sure, computers are used to store reams of mundane junk, but they are also the place where millions of us store our most intimate possessions -- our thoughts, the creations of our minds. And all the while, these pale, asexual freaks are toiling away at their computers, rubbing their cold spindly hands together like Gollum, developing programs to destroy what we create.

Yes, we should all have up-to-date virus protection. And women shouldn't walk alone at night. And small children shouldn't be left to themselves in public places. It should be clearer than perhaps we've made it, the sort of company a cracker keeps.

These techno-thugs even have their own conventions, where they converge to share stories of creation destroyed, and delude themselves about their own creativity. They aren't any more creative than the vandal who figures out how to break into a house with an alarm system. Yes, this takes skill, and knowledge. So do many things that at their core are destructive and hateful. And for all their self-obsession about their creativity, the truth is that whenever one of these nits succumbs to illness or injury, the world becomes a better place. What a terrible thing to have true of oneself.

Note: Someone much more knowledgeable about this sort of thing pointed out that the Hacker community consists of people like the inventor of Linux, i.e., entrepreneurs who push the boundaries of programming and creativity in ways that make people better off. Crackers, on the other hand, are the less intelligent, despicable alter egos of these good people. Journalists, and people like me who have little understanding of these things, tend to confuse the two. So in the interest of being accurate, I edited a previous draft of this post in order to apply the proper term. I assure my readers that I have nothing against Ritz, Triscuits, or any other baked, wheat-based snack.