Understanding how the virus writers operate, how they perceive their world and the world around them, and how they think is an integral part of addressing the problem of computer viruses. Avoiding the often dangerous over generalization into some homogenous group, an examination of various motivations and technical abilities is presented. Trends in the virus writing communities will be explored. Future threats will be considered and possible solutions presented. The presentation will include actual case studies selected from the following populations: (1) adolescents (2) college students (3) adult/professionally employed (4) ex-virus writers