M$ puts a price on their heads...

Quote:

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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 10 a.m. EST where a Microsoft legal counsel and investigators from the FBI, U.S. Secret Service and Interpol would make a statement

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OK....now I KNOW I wandered into a black hole and came out in a parallel universe or alternate reality.....

From Reuters News Service....

Wow, I'm shocked, M$ will spend that much money on something they know is not gonna give them an ROI, lol.

I'm sure two less virus writers aren't going to make the internet a safer place to be.
People properly securing they're systems, and companies producing quality code will.


--PuRe

Instead of spending $500,000 to catch the virus writers, why don't they put that money towards plugging the holes that allow theses things to infect. Or maybe put it towards lowering the outrageous prices they charge for software. Like Pure said, two less virus writers doesn't mean anything, we need to stop it at the source.

And Allen, I've been in an alternate reality for years, it's not bad once you get used to it, lol.

I guess they have to find someone to blame for their flaws. LOL!

I'm not necessarily a fan of Microsoft but its the same as any reward...someone robs or destroys ur property or something, you set a reward to have the criminal caught and done justice. Its not blaming anyone or gonna make they're software better. I always cap on microsoft too but sayin "they should put that 250 thousand to they're OS to make it better" they've got billions of dollars. i dunno...i'm just sayin i dont see anything wrong with it..its just the same as puttin out a reward for a vandalizer in ur community or something

Well, let me get my feet wet, M$ should give me the money and I can find two people to take the blame for the attack, they would probably live in some arab country where they couldn't be extradited from and they would receive part of the reward after I proved they were the ones that committed the attack

Well I think that this is a good thing they are doing, money causes people to do strange things, and not only may this tempt somene to tell on there buddies for 250,000$ but this will also maybe scare some future worm writers, knowing that M$ is willing to pay for them to be found. Let us not forget that M$ money is pretty much endless. And this may not improve their security, but this will send a message, "***** with us, you go to prison". Go M$.

Micro$oft owns you...all your base are belong to us

It's aPublic Relations Exercise. And a very cheap way for MS to show that they DO care about their systems' security... After the fact!

It is interesting to see Microsquish doing this. It would also be interesting as Red_Asphalt stated, to see if the hackers turn on each other.

I also wonder if this is a spin attempt by M$ to show it is "getting tough" with hackers.

FYI - a similiar news article from the AP via SecurityFocus:

http://www.securityfocus.com/news/7371

Ok...I've finally stopped laughing about this one. $500,000 to find the people that coded and released "bugs" in their toy OS???? ROTFLMAO!!!!!!!!!!!!

Keep the $500,000 and start a QA/QC or Software Test Eng. group that will find and fix these things so no one can exploit them in the wild. HEHEHE

Breeng me zee 'ead of Alfredo Gates........... or something like that (Alfredo Garcia, perhaps?) I wonder if the sequel could be the "Redmond Chainsaw Massacre"..............ah this white grenache has finally reached that which passes for my CPU :D

Sorry folks, some things I find hard to take seriously...like crocodile tears?

Cheers

[ Microsoft Bounty Hunter Initiative ]

Personally I think that Microsoft is asking for it [ Dont they always ]. Yes virus writers are probably gonna be really tempted to turn their friends in. Wouldn't you for $250,000 ?? But lets flip the coin , virus writers aren't very stupid and this will just make them want to code another virus just too ridicule Microsoft.
All in all Microsoft will probably regret ever doing this.

That's my 2 cents worth ....

Ok, so what you guys are saying in essence is; that if I hire someone to build a fence around my house and that said fence is compromised, because it is not strong enough to withstand the pressure of a pair of wire cutters, then the person I hired to build the fence is responsible for the fence failing to protect my property? No! The person that cut the hole in your fence and stole your property is the person that you are going to try to prosecute; and you will follow any reasonable lead in an attempt to locate that individual, to include offering a reward.

We all know that every operating system will contain bugs, security flaws, or exploits. (call it what you will) I have no problem with M$ attempting to hold someone responsible for their actions, when it involves their business and as long as it can be proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that the individual being prosecuted is in fact the one that created or launched the malicious code.

Hmmm.........If I find those guys, I could finnally by my wife those **** that she has been bugging me about for years now.........and an extension for myself so that I could benefit from them.......That would make about as much sense as focusing on two Virii writers that are probably too worried about happy hour at the local pub to be concerned about being busted by pesudo-tech vigilanties......

500,000 is nothing to Microsoft which I think that Elmore was getting at earlier. The scarier thing here is the tightening of that little space between government and big business. You may have thought that you wouldn't have lived to see that day when corporations and governments were as one, but we've got our confirmation of the start of it. Personally, I feel that he who breaks the law should have the law to answer to and nothing more. I remember reading that the law enforcement community neither frowns upon or directly condones this sort of behavior for a business, but I feel that there should be laws against this sort of thing as it could become dangerous at greater levels.

I guess that will just have to wait and see if the Microsoft Bounty Hunter Initiative works. Humm seems kinda interesting how the FBI, Secret Service and INTERPOL are gonna work together. I guess that as long as money is there, they'll be there as well ... Well Microsoft has plenty of money to provide...

Do you think that other companies will follow in Microsoft's steps what do you guys think ??

--You can put partial blame on Microsoft, but even if they had extensively reviewed the code errors will still be found. On the other hand patches and fixes were available for quite sometime so if people decided to be lazy oh well they payed the price ... --