The Cynic Says……

German teen who made Sasser worm hired by computer security firm

Pretty cool if you ask me… Nobody’s gonna know better how to protect against worms & viruses than someone who writes them. Amazingly, the kid that did it is only 18 years old. He said in an interview with the company that hired him that he didn’t realize the consequences of his actions until it was too late. Honestly, I don’t believe he should get off scot-free and not be punished, but I don’t see any reason why a security firm SHOULDN’T hire him. I think if more of these virus writers were hired/contracted by AV/security firms, the battle against trojans, worms, viruses, etc wouldn’t be such a damned uphill battle. Obviously, if more users would make use of safe computing practices these worms wouldn’t be able to propagate anywhere near as quickly either. The sad thing is that the average user just sits in front of the computer and hacks away at the keyboard, not paying much attention to what is and isnt’ safe to download. Most people don’t even bother to check Windows Update regularly for patches/updates. More times than I can count, I’ve sat down on someone’s computer, only to find it inundated with adware and spyware. I guess people get used to having it and just sort of assume that’s how the internet is; like having spyware and a slow computer is a part of being on the internet. The fact of the matter is that spyware is easier to avoid than it is to get rid of. Getting rid of it can be a REAL pain in the ass. Avoiding it is just as simple as not always clicking “yes” when a website requests to install software on your PC… paying attention to games and other “free” software you install. A lot of “freeware” is really “adware” that is supported by advertisements. Advertising banners inside the program are tolerable, but where you run into problems is when you have something like Kazaa that installs tons of other programs along with it that download advertisements to your computer and pop up random browser windows with advertisements. Heh… I think spyware designers should be hung up by their thumbs and flogged with leather straps… then doused in alcohol.