74 million reasons why people write malware

One day I want an article with a title like this to be a genuine list containing 74 million items that someone has spent their whole life working on.

Would a list of "a dollar bill" repeated 74 million times count?

Only if the individual serial numbers of each one are listed.

Actually scrub that, no, I want 74 million different, proper well constructed reasons with citations.

1. A list of 74 million things I've worked on.

2. tbd

Any chances this is the operation behind the Pinboard.in (and friends) servers being seized ? That would at least somehow explain the "don't want to take any chances and take the whole racks" part.

"These criminal enterprises infected the computers of innocent victims with malicious scareware, and then duped them into purchasing fake anti-virus software."

What if they just resold non-fake anti-virus software? Infect someone, then sell them a 'legit' tool that removes the infection, and make an affiliate sale?

Because a computer under your control is worth more money than a satisfied customer?

possibly, but probably also less legal hassle. You are in fact selling a 'legit' answer to a real problem.

Yes, it's extortion, but it's taking one of the talking points away, if nothing else.