Idiot of the moment

Sasser Worm Creator's Sentence Suspended

Sasser Worm Creator's Sentence Suspended

Computer virus and worm writers are vermin. At best they can be likened to idiots who key cars or paint on walls. To them it's harmless fun, but someone has to pay to clean up their mess and it's never going to be them.

Nowadays it's even worse as real live criminals (people who steal vs mindless vandals) will use their base code to install malicious software that can lead to identity theft, cash loss and severe finantial liability for individuals.

Now I grew up playing around with arpanet in school, set up a dial up at work for internet access so I could play around in Usenet and with gophers in the pre web internet days. As such I tend to have a pragmatic approach to intellectual property but these maniacs cause mayhem and hardship whenever they operate. It's not just businesses either, it's people like you and me that have money stolen, computers screwed up just so these little lame idiots can get their jollies.

And the freaking Germans let this little moron off with a slap on the wrist. How does that deter the other idiots out there? The only thing that makes most virus writers not as bad as terrorists is that they don't actually kill people. The downstream results can be almost as bad though.

I think that programmers need to take a page from doctors these days. We need an oath... "First of all do no harm..."

posted by KingoftheIdiots @ 8:57 AM