Caught and Convicted !!

[Norm]

The guy who wrote the Melissa virus got what's coming to him.

Well he got 'some' of what he should have got.
They could've kicked him a few times too, who'd know :D

http://news.com.com/2100-1023-896464.html?tag=dd.ne.dht.nl-sty.0

[fredra]

Don't let me get at him....cut off his @#$%^....tar him...feather him.....and throw him into a vat of burning oil.
All the bleeding hearts can now bleed. I promise not to be politically correct.

[blebs]

Originally posted by fredra
Don't let me get at him....cut off his @#$%^....tar him...feather him.....and throw him into a vat of burning oil.
All the bleeding hearts can now bleed. I promise not to be politically correct.
Did you have to ruin a good tar and feathering with that politically correct thing? :D

[greEd]

Guys,
I do agree that writing a virus for sole purpose of destruction is wrong, you also have to remember alot of the security and precautions we know come from the same minds who create such threats. All in all it is just 1's and 0's, I agree punishment is in order but also learn from these people ... don't fear what you don't know. ;)

regards,
greEd

[blebs]

I agree greEd, it's just that when they go to the bad/dark side, well........:(

[Norm]

The last thing I want to do is argue with greEd :D

Not exactly fair saying "it's all 1's and 0's"
Sure it all breaks down to 1's and 0's but use the same analogy for your house, and you'll see what I mean.
It's not all nails and wood, it's your castle.

Some one breaks into my house, and/or causes trouble in my castle, and I go beserk. But if they were to call first and let me know they were coming to do damage, or cause problems, I could keep them out without going ballistic.

[Norm]

I should also ad that not all known viruses are/were written for destructive puposes. Many are written to do a certain task that can be used in a destructive manner in the wrong hands.

For instance, with the help of a friend I put together a .com file that will erase all partitions and put a drive back to the way it was when it was new. It's great for removing Linux, NTFS and other partitions when Fdisk craps out. But in the wrong hands it could be very destructive.

Every virus scanner I have scanned it with says it is a virus, (obviously since it wipes the master boot record) but it was written to help ME clean off partitions, nothing more.

[TonyT]

Interesting that the estimated damage from Melisssa was est at 80 mil. That's a bit exaggerated because the damage was in lost production time, not actual monetary losses. These figures are arrived at based on the amount of man hrs that employees did not work, databases were downed and office production came to a halt. Factories and warehouses and shipping continued though.
Many companies are insured against catastrophies like that, esp if the the companies are dependant upon computer systems heavily.

The plus side of all of this is a heightened awareness of safe email practices.

I do not dig what this guy did though. It is based entirely upon an evil purpose to harm or destroy. Let him "Be Melissa" for some 250 lb lifer for a few months and get "Mass e-mALed" .

[fredra]

Originally posted by greEd
Guys,
I do agree that writing a virus for sole purpose of destruction is wrong, you also have to remember alot of the security and precautions we know come from the same minds who create such threats. All in all it is just 1's and 0's, I agree punishment is in order but also learn from these people ... don't fear what you don't know. ;)

regards,
greEd
I for one will not belabour the points of greEd, Norm or Tony. However, while I agree that some things good came out of all this e.g. heightened security awarness and corporations taking security of their enterprise seriously and this discussion.
If you are using 1's and 0's to expose a security flaw, that is one thing, but to use it to create terrorist attacks, or bring down the economy, or have an adverse effect on the betterment of mankind and to boast about it is wrong.
In my programming days, to write an application and see it work provided a great satisfaction, so I can understand the egotistical adrenalin rush these people get when they achieve their dasterly deeds. However, the consequences of their action is a lack of responsibility and accounability, when they diliberately use their skills to reduce our society to the haves and the have nots. Who gave them the right to destroy "my house", to invade "my privacy"
I will come off my soapbox now...
Thanks

[greEd]

I agree fully that unleashing a virus for the full intention of destruction into the wild is wrong, but writing that program ... I don't disagree with. The problem is many times the program will get into the worng hands and you have a big problem.
Here (http://www.techtv.com/news/security/story/0,24195,3382211,00.html) is a very good article about a female virus writer, do I agree with her posting the code to her virii to her site, of course look at my site I post code to flawed code all the time. But it is all for the wake up call to people that "Hey LOOK! if I have the code, chances are someone malicious has the code." Protect yourself.
But in the case of the Melissa Virus you have to remember it really wasn't a malicious virus "per se" and the efeects of the code really weren't known ... until it hit the wild and hell broke loose. :p
So, I guess what I'm trying to say is yes David L. Smith deserves the punishment, but not all virus writers go with the same intention.

[fredra]

Point taken grEd
May I refer you to this (http://www.robertgraham.com/journal/020210-superstition.html) as an additional opinion on the matter.
(Voices in my head does not reflect the opinions of management)