 |
| Bill Gates of Microsoft |
As well as offering $500,000 for
information leading to the arrest and conviction of the authors of
the Sobig and
Blaster worms,
Microsoft has also earmarked an additional $4.5 million reward fund
for apprehending future virus writers.
In total, Microsoft has created a $5 million fund for rewarding
people who inform against, and assist in the conviction of, virus
writers.
"Microsoft has confirmed that its bottom line was hurt by virus
incidents this year. In recent times major viruses have either
exploited weakness in their software, or pretended to be messages
from Microsoft technical support or Bill Gates - understandably
they want to do everything they can to stop this," said Graham
Cluley, senior technology consultant for Sophos. "Offering
substantial rewards cannot do any harm, and may entice some members
of the computer underground to come forward with information.
People considering releasing viruses in the future should take note
of this and think again."
"These are not just internet crimes, cybercrimes or virtual
crimes. These are real crimes that hurt a lot of people," Microsoft
general counsel Brad Smith said at the Washington news conference
yesterday announcing the bounty.
Individuals with information about the people behind any worm or
virus should contact the appropriate computer crime authority in
their country. In any of Interpol's 181 member countries, people
with information about virus writers can contact their Interpol
National Central Bureau or Interpol's international website.
In the past virus writers such as David L Smith, Simon Vallor and Christopher
Pile have been sentenced to prison for their activities.
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.