The mayor of the Dutch town that spawned the Anna Kournikova
computer worm (also known as VBS/SST-A) has reportedly
made a tentative job offer to the virus author.
Newspapers this weekend reported that Mayor Sieboldt Hartkamp
was pleased with the attention the Kournikova worm had brought the
Dutch town of Sneek.
Hartkamp was reported as referring to the Kournikova worm
outbreak which infected hundreds of thousands of computers as a
"joke", and said of its author: "It is obvious that the young man
is very capable and it is in our interest to employ people like him
in our information technology department." He went on to say that
he would be prepared to offer the author a "serious interview" once
his studies were completed.
Mayor Hartkamp's comments parallel many made in the Philippines
where the author of the infamous Love Bug became a national
celebrity and received many job offers from software companies.
"Virus writers are like firestarters," said Graham Cluley, senior
technology consultant for Sophos. "They irresponsibly throw a
lighted match into a wooded area without considering the
consequences. A forest fire often results. Are these really the
kind of people you would want to hire to work in the fire
brigade?"
In Taiwan Chen Ing-Hau, the author of the highly damaging
W95/CIH-10xx virus,
was employed by a software company who astonishingly issued a press
release about having headhunted the virus writer.
"Instead of society applauding virus writers, maybe it is time
for us to teach youngsters that the damage caused by virus
distribution is not only anti-social but a criminal offence in many
countries," added Cluley. "It isn't cool and it isn't clever.
People who distribute viruses and worms cost companies money and
make computing less fun for all of us."
In reality, it appears that like many virus authors the author
of the Kournikova worm is not "very capable", having shown little
programming knowledge by using a simple virus construction kit to
help him create his malware.
Sophos recommends companies protect themselves with a consolidated solution which can control network access and defend
against the threats of spam, hackers, spyware and viruses.
More than 100 million users in 150 countries rely on Sophos as the best protection against complex threats and data loss. Sophos is committed to providing security and data protection solutions that are simple to manage, deploy and use and that deliver the industry's lowest total cost of ownership. Sophos offers award-winning encryption, endpoint security, web, email, and network access control solutions backed by SophosLabs - a global network of threat intelligence centers. With more than two decades of experience, Sophos is regarded as a leader in security and data protection by top analyst firms and has received many industry awards.
Sophos is headquartered in Boston, US and Oxford, UK. More information is available at www.sophos.com.