Fighting malware and spam

Same old, same old

Virus writers plead stupidity...

Just days after his creation made its first appearance in the Wild, the suspected author of the Iraqi war-themed W32/Ganda worm has been tracked down by Swedish authorities. The man is said to have confessed to having written and distributed the worm, which posed as a screensaver offering spy satellite photographs of Iraq. [A full analysis of W32/Ganda is scheduled for the May 2003 issue of Virus Bulletin.] Scoring zero out of ten for originality, the suspect made the predictable claim upon his arrest that he had little idea that the virus would cause so much disruption. This has become something of a standard (and frankly boring) response from those charged with virus-writing crimes: take for instance David Smith, who 'had no idea there would be such profound consequences to others'; Jan De Wit, who 'did it without thinking'; Simon Vallor, who 'didn't have a clue it would do that' and so the list goes on. A pretty clueless bunch, or so they would have us (and a sympathetic jury) believe.

02 April 2003

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