• Maybe a reason that people spend their lives writing viruses is because they want to be able to just claim that they did it.
• When some of these characters get caught they always come up with the same cock and bull story that they have seen a flaw in the security and they wrote the code just to show that it is there (just like the mountain) and to 'educate' the ignorant users about security.
• Many virus writers would say they never hurt a person they just like to manipulate the system.
• There are many reasons why people write viruses there has been a measure of success in clamping down on unsolicited e-mail and spam - and spammers need to find new ways to amuse themselves.
• There are still some who still do it for the kudos so much so they have formed loose communities to perpetrate their mischief.

via bizface