Malware and The Law of Unintended Consequences
Posted by Erik Larkin | Tuesday, December 20, 2005 10:12 AM PT
I sincerely doubt the Sober author had this in mind: Sophos has a post up about a German man who got one of the seemingly ubiqitous Sober virus spams and, believing the message about being under investigation by the authorities, turned himself in for child porn. The Sophos story references a small Reuters article.
Sophos post
Reuters article
Anyone who writes malware definitely has other problems.
Writing malware, of course, being his/her first problem.
This indiviudual got what he deserved.
He didn't write it. He GOT it.
Well, it's good that the man got caught, for the sake of the innocent children, but let's not go thinking the end justifies the means. A serious, unrelenting hammer needs to come down on anyone who writes any kind of malware for any reason.
I don't believe in "zero tolerance" for anything, but the tolerance for writing and distributing any kind of malware needs to be paper-thin.
anyone distributing malware should be fined for the estimate losses it inflicts on businesses & individuals, and prohibited from using a computer for, i dunno, 5 years? I can't imagine five DAYS without a computer, but screw 'em!
The Show must go on* :p