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Add to FavoritesShould computer virus writers go to jail? Let's think a few minutes before we rush into answering this question.
Should Consumer Report tester go to jail for finding out design mistakes that manufacturer let on products put on the market because they hoped that no one would find them?
Should have Ralph Nader gone to jail because he discovered a life threatening defect, known to the manufacturer, still not corrected until he brought it to the public attention?
There is an easy answer to this question, but we seem to avoid giving it, and as usual as typical humans we tend to fight the effect not the cause.
I am not a virus writer, and I know what problems they are causing to the industry as a whole. However, when we found mistakes with let's say cars, we created laws to recall those cars and to fix the mistakes. We never prosecuted the designer and the decision makers who allowed those mistakes on the road. And there is evidence that most of the problems are known to the manufacturer, but are overlooked because it is cheaper to pay a lawsuit, than it would be to fix the problem once in production. And, I am happy to say it, the quality of the products on the market is improving every day because we put legislation in place.
Back in 2003, in August, actually on August 13, and I have my personal reasons to remember that date, an Internet worm created by a young German boy, set off havoc in the Windows World all over the world. In the United States a few Government agencies were brought to a halt for a few days. One of the branches of the University of Wisconsin was without computers for a couple of days. Most of my clients were affected by it also. What did the worm do? As soon as one made a connection to the Net, the computer will go into a shut down mode and reboot, entering an endless loop if the user tried to reconnect to the Net. If one only needed to work on local drive or local network, there was not disruption in service.
The whole world went into a frenzy to discover the "criminal." And I have to say, that he was discovered and he got in a real legal problem. However, when things calmed down a little, the world found out that the "juvenile delinquent," I think he was under eighteen, discovered a hole in Microsoft Windows program, and informed those in charge of the potential risk of the flaw. However, no one did anything, and Microsoft with its regular grace, not only ignored that guy, but tried to ridicule him. So what did he do? He showed us that we are working on very thin ice, and he did it in a very elegant way. He could have gotten in the system and create real damage. He only planted the few lines program that rebooted the system. And he had access to the world, to governments, schools, private individuals.
He did his civic duty to inform the involved party of the problem. Did those responsible for the problem react in a diligent way and fix it? No, because at that time would have been to costly.
Is it reasonable to assume that if we did not push legislation in this country, the car manufacturers would have not fixed the problem once the car was sold? Yes it is, and that is why we pushed the legislation.
Should the computer virus writers go to jail? I think that this question should be answered buy Symantec and MacAffey, and a few other companies who due their existence to the virus writers. I don't have figures from the top of my head, but how many other products except the Internet security segment is Symantec making money off? If I dared to ask what else is the company producing, in spite of the fact that they do a lot of other products, very few people would know the answer to this question.
I hate conspiracies theories, but isn't it conceivable that some of those viruses could be released under a very good disguise, by the same people who eliminate them for a price? It would be possible but highly unlikely, because there are enough imaginative guys out there to do it on their own...
Should the computer virus writers go to jail? Should Microsoft release products which are not only full of bugs, but the bugs are documented? They are very proud to say that they are operating on over 90% of the desktop computers. And they should be proud. Of course they are not, when accused of monopoly...
Well, should computer virus writers go to jail for doing quality assurance testing for a company which puts money ahead of the interest of the users? Microsoft will spend less money fixing the problems and doing diligent pre-release work, rather than the billions it spends in prosecuting virus writers
And there is another little detail that no one seems to take notice of. The virus culture is only known to the Windows world. Unix, and its flavors, or the Mac operating system, and any other operating systems in existence today have no such a problem. Is it because the virus writers are a bunch of psychos fixed on Bill Gates' fortunes, or is it because the other operating system are well constructed and do not allow for this kind of open doors? And if they were open door discovered, they were made public and fixed before they became an epidemic.
There is a crowd of stone throwers at the virus writers, who actually did not even do their home work before they went into a frantic paranoia. Most of the viruses are simple annoyances, they are not big conspiracy to steal secrets. There were a lot of spectacular breaches into systems. A few months ago, in Madison Wisconsin the whole legislators' personal data was compromised, social security, personal addresses, telephone numbers etc... included, because a clerk took home a printout with the information which was stolen from the car parked in front of a fitness club. The VA information compromised for millions of people was stored on a notebook computer that a clerk removed against bad written security policies from the office. Credit card information was stolen from department stores and the identity of millions was compromised. It turned out that there was an inside job, an unhappy employee turned entrepreneur supplementing the low wages offered by the company. When teenagers broke into Defense Department computers, or NASA a few years back, those break ins were caused not by sophisticated virus writers, but by people who did not do their jobs properly, and did not pay attention to security. It was a time when computers were not house hold items and one had to have skills not common for high school kids. Investment in security was not a priority...
I may sound like giving a carte blanche to the computer virus writers, but I am not. I am just suggesting that before we start killing malaria patients to stop the spread of the disease, for instance, we make sure that we eliminate the environment that breeds malaria, poverty, dirt, infested water supplies and so forth.
So, before we even ask if we should send computer virus writers to jail, we should make sure that the products that we are paying for, and I might say that we are overpaying for only because there is a legalized monopoly in the market, are safe and would not permit virus writers, I think "quality assurance workers", to find faults in them.
Personally I think that computer virus writers are victims of entrapment fueled by a dysfunctional industry and a dysfunctional legal system which allows the status quo... A smart company, which is serious about its product would pay people to write viruses to check their programs...
And on the lighter side, why would I put in jail the goose that lays golden eggs? After all, I am in the computer maintenance business...
Learn more about this author, Harrison Forbes.
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Yes
Virus writers should be sentenced to jail because they cause harm and damage the property of others. Viruses are a problem which extends beyond infecting one person because the very nature of the virus is to spread and cause interruptions.
This rapid spread of computer viruses is a significant problem which continues to increase. Today our reliance on computers and network connections has become necessary and the effects inflicted by Malware have become complex because viruses are no longer "practical jokes". Years ago a virus consisted of an annoying pop-up or funny quote flashing on your screen, but today's viruses cause considerable damage. Viruses destroy computers, data, and affect livelihoods and personal property. Due to the nature and scope of harm viruses cause, their authors should do jail time for their crimes.
Even if the virus writer only intended to cause injury to a limited number of victims, the number of affected people is vast since the very nature of a virus is to replicate and spread. With the propagation of viruses, the "toll count" of those being hit with a virus increases and the number of victims harmed by a singular crime are much higher. If a guy committed arson on a house, but that fire spread and damaged 10 homes on the block because it was windy, would he only be charged with arson for his intended victim? Would it matter that he "accidentally" harmed others? Of course it would. Why should virus writers who damage the masses be treated any differently?
If a virus is destructive enough to destroy a computer, but prior to destruction the victim passed that virus to 100 other recipients who passed it on to another 1000, that drastically increases the casualty level, and I don't think that should be chalked up to collateral damage, it's criminal. The authors of computer viruses should be punished according to the extent of harm caused, and since many of them cause mass damage, it should equate to jail time.
Since viruses cause different levels of damage when determining whether or not virus writers should go to jail, the amount of destruction needs to be assessed. Many viruses are written with malicious intent to do harm, and other ones are written with mischievous intent to annoy. In view of the fact all viruses are harmful on some level, if only because they tie up resources and take valuable time to clean out of a system, the writers should be held accountable. The authors of vastly destructive viruses should be punished with jail time.
Computer and network technology are no longer novelties, they are necessities. Businesses depend on information systems; privately most citizens are reliant upon computers too. When a computer system or network is damaged it carries a high cost in repairs and then there is also data loss to consider. The viruses of today are no longer nuisances like earlier ones were, today's viruses are destructive even if the intent was not meant to be.
With the important place technology holds in modern society, breaking into systems these days is equated to robbery and/or other "offline" crimes. Today we not only need to be concerned with traditional viruses, we must be concerned with Trojans, worms and a host of other infections. Identity theft is now a huge issue, as is embezzlement and other forms of theft.
A problem is it is extremely difficult to apprehend the creators of viruses. This capability of committing a crime by inflicting damage on someone else's property by writing malicious code and a simple click of the mouse adds a twist to the justice system. Often the ones causing the damage are anonymous in a pool of millions of suspects with very little evidence to go on. Are the resources and efforts invested in tracking the elusive people who release viruses a justifiable cost when weighed against the risk factor? Another problem is there are no geographical boundaries and developing streamlined laws across the globe to prosecute virus authors is difficult.
Obviously the issue is not all that simple, but virus writers deserve jail time because of the havoc they cause and the damage they do. As technology becomes more integrated in daily living, the punishment for damage caused in the cyber world need to reflect the changing of the times.
Learn more about this author, Leigh Goessl.
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