Malware and The Law of Unintended Consequences

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

Comments

Anyone who writes malware definitely has other problems.

theworldisasheep

December 20, 2005

12:21 PM PT

Writing malware, of course, being his/her first problem.

theworldisasheep

December 20, 2005

12:24 PM PT

This indiviudual got what he deserved.

the computer man

December 21, 2005

6:52 AM PT

He didn't write it. He GOT it.

Anonymous

December 21, 2005

2:39 PM PT

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.

Toulinwoek

December 22, 2005

10:41 AM PT

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!

red hand

December 24, 2005

9:26 PM PT

The Show must go on* :p

HiGGyPac

December 24, 2005

10:47 PM PT