PC-GUY
1
LONDON, England (Reuters) -- Microsoft Corp. and security organisations are set to offer cash bounties for information on the authors of the crippling MSBlast and Sobig computer bugs, industry sources said on Wednesday.
Technology news service CNET News.com reported late on Tuesday that the software giant would offer $500,000 for information leading to the arrest of the writers of two of the costliest computer bug outbreaks to hit the Internet.
Computer experts contacted by Reuters across Europe confirmed a cash reward was on the cards.
The bugs wreaked havoc across the world in August and September, attacking computers that run on Microsoft Windows operating systems.
A Microsoft spokeswoman in London said only that a press conference would be held on Wednesday in Washington at 1000 EST (1500 GMT) where a Microsoft legal counsel and investigators from the FBI, U.S. Secret Service and Interpol would make a statement.
Interpol could not be reached for comment.
Security experts familiar with the ongoing cyber dragnet said the trail had recently run cold. The unprecedented lure of cash was seen as a way to generate new leads, sources said.
"Apparently they haven't had too much luck, which is why they are resorting to offering money, which could work for Blaster,'' said Mikko Hypponen, research manager at Finnish anti-virus firm F-Secure.
Blaster, also known as MSBlast or LovSan, triggered a torrent of data traffic across the Internet, bogging down corporate networks and knocking some machines offline.
Theories abound that the author wrote the worm to impress a girl, possibly named "San'' -- short for Sandy.
"I could see a teenager snitching on that one. SoBig is a different story. I think that's the work of an organisation or group,'' Hypponen said.
Sobig.F infected hundreds of thousands of PCs around the globe, installing a programme on some machines that could allow it to be controlled by outsiders to send spam e-mails.
Because of the spamming connection, law enforcement officers and security experts suspect the Sobig authors wrote the malicious code for profit motives, stoking fears that organised groups may increasingly resort to this form of cyber-sabotage in the future.
That Microshit for you lets not fix the problems lets just hang the people who made it.
Microshit S&*%kS
Technology news service CNET News.com reported late on Tuesday that the software giant would offer $500,000 for information leading to the arrest of the writers of two of the costliest computer bug outbreaks to hit the Internet.
Computer experts contacted by Reuters across Europe confirmed a cash reward was on the cards.
The bugs wreaked havoc across the world in August and September, attacking computers that run on Microsoft Windows operating systems.
A Microsoft spokeswoman in London said only that a press conference would be held on Wednesday in Washington at 1000 EST (1500 GMT) where a Microsoft legal counsel and investigators from the FBI, U.S. Secret Service and Interpol would make a statement.
Interpol could not be reached for comment.
Security experts familiar with the ongoing cyber dragnet said the trail had recently run cold. The unprecedented lure of cash was seen as a way to generate new leads, sources said.
"Apparently they haven't had too much luck, which is why they are resorting to offering money, which could work for Blaster,'' said Mikko Hypponen, research manager at Finnish anti-virus firm F-Secure.
Blaster, also known as MSBlast or LovSan, triggered a torrent of data traffic across the Internet, bogging down corporate networks and knocking some machines offline.
Theories abound that the author wrote the worm to impress a girl, possibly named "San'' -- short for Sandy.
"I could see a teenager snitching on that one. SoBig is a different story. I think that's the work of an organisation or group,'' Hypponen said.
Sobig.F infected hundreds of thousands of PCs around the globe, installing a programme on some machines that could allow it to be controlled by outsiders to send spam e-mails.
Because of the spamming connection, law enforcement officers and security experts suspect the Sobig authors wrote the malicious code for profit motives, stoking fears that organised groups may increasingly resort to this form of cyber-sabotage in the future.
That Microshit for you lets not fix the problems lets just hang the people who made it.
Microshit S&*%kS