Dr Jan Hruska, CEO of Sophos, one of the world's leading
developers of anti-virus software, sent out a strong message today
to students considering getting involved in virus writing.
"Don't bother applying for a job at Sophos if you have written
viruses because you will be turned away," said Dr Jan Hruska, joint
CEO of Sophos Anti-Virus. "You are of no use to us. The skills
required to write good anti-virus software are far removed from
those needed to write a virus. With 80,000 viruses in existence
there can be no excuse for teaching students on how to create
more."
Hruska was reacting to the news that the University of
Calgary in Canada has confirmed it will be running a virus writing
course for students later this year.
"The university's justification for this course is entirely
misguided," continued Hruska. "There is no need to make code
self-replicating to test new vulnerabilities or features which
could appear in future viruses. The essential component that makes
it a virus - self-replication - can be left out. We hope the
university comes to its senses quickly."
Sophos stresses that it does not have an issue with people
wishing to study computer security or the techniques which viruses
and malicious software can use. However, it does not believe that
writing new viruses is a useful way to learn more about the
subject.
The University of Calgary has so far declined to comment on
whether it believes it would be financially or legally responsible
if any of the viruses written on its course were to break out and
infect innocent users.
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.