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Thread: Now Microsoft offers 250000$ reward for mydoom.b virus

  1. #1
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    Now Microsoft offers 250000$ reward for mydoom.b virus

    This news really made me to think that time and again we have said that it is possbile to track an individual to his / her PC.. in that case why such a huge ransom agreed to pay to the author....

    Is it not possible to trace the origin of virus..... I am confused.....

    Read the article

    Microsoft offers $250,000 reward for arrest of author MyDoom.B virus

    WASHINGTON (AP) - Microsoft Corp. promised Thursday to pay $250,000 to anyone who helps authorities find and prosecute the author of a fast-spreading computer virus.

    The cash reward is the third so far under a $5-million program Microsoft announced in early November to help U.S. authorities nab authors of unusually damaging Internet infections aimed at consumers of the company's software products. The MyDoom.B virus, spread by e-mail, causes victims to launch an electronic attack starting Tuesday against Microsoft's own website and prevents victims from visiting the websites of leading anti-virus companies. The virus poses as an authentic-looking error message.

    Among the only clues to the identity of the possible author is a mysterious message inside the virus: "Andy; I'm just doing my job, nothing personal, sorry."

    "This worm is a criminal attack," said Brad Smith, Microsoft's senior vice-president and general counsel.

    "Microsoft wants to help the authorities catch this criminal."

    Microsoft urged anyone with information about the author of the MyDoom.B virus to contact the FBI, Secret Service or Interpol.

    The company targeted by an earlier version of the same virus, The SCO Group Inc., previously offered a $250,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the creator of the Mydoom.A version, which is more widespread. Experts have said the same person probably created both versions.

    Government officials and others have described the $250,000 rewards as the highest in recent memory funded entirely by the private sector - akin to cash bounties paid in the late 1800s by U.S. banks to vigilantes who hunted robbers.

    Internal FBI documents indicate the U.S. government is a cautious supporter of Microsoft offering cash bounties.

    FBI officials in October gave conditional approval to Microsoft for the concept. But they cautioned they won't share secret details of any investigation with Microsoft executives and won't promise to launch any formal investigation whenever the company announces a reward.

    In the documents, obtained under the U.S. Freedom of Information Act, the FBI said it was developing "a more formal operating protocol for working with Microsoft" and with other companies that want to offer similar rewards.

    Microsoft said residents of any country are eligible for the $250,000. The company has said previously it will not pay rewards to anyone involved in creating the viruses.

    Previous rewards of $250,000 each were offered for information about those responsible for the Blaster and Sobig viruses, which spread rapidly last summer among hundreds of thousands of computers running Windows.

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  2. #2
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    Re: Now Microsoft offers 250000$ reward for mydoom.b virus

    Originally posted here by anjali
    This news really made me to think that time and again we have said that it is possbile to track an individual to his / her PC.. in that case why such a huge ransom agreed to pay to the author....

    Is it not possible to trace the origin of virus..... I am confused.....

    Read the article

    Link
    I think that MS is trying to get someone close to the virus writer to "sell them out." It also might be hard to track the virus propigation if if started from several points..
    N00b> STFU i r teh 1337 (english: You must be mistaken, good sir or madam. I believe myself to be quite a good player. On an unrelated matter, I also apparently enjoy math.)

  3. #3
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    So it means that a smart guy can creat a havoc and then move on unnoticed.... Is there no way that the law enforcers can trap the origin of virus.....

    This reminds me of a recent post in AO where it was metnioned that future virus programmers would use distributed computing to launch the attacks....

    Is this a very similar attack.. ?? I guess if yes we are going to have though times ahead.. as other virus programmer would also e encouraged to launch attacks and not to ever worry abt them being caught.......

    Regards
    ****** Any man who knows all the answers most likely misunderstood the questions *****

  4. #4
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    A lot of times virii writers will also introduce the virus from a public pc, school, cafe, or a pc that they have remote control of. Very rarely will a virii writer be directly linked to a virus's release.

  5. #5
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    Also, sometimes, the virus writer never intends for the code to get into the wild. All s/he does is write a Proof of Concept code to prove that a particular method of infection would be effective. I don't think we're looking at that kind of thing here though.
    Cheers,
    cgkanchi
    Buy the Snakes of India book, support research and education (sorry the website has been discontinued)
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  6. #6
    Government officials and others have described the $250,000 rewards as the highest in recent memory funded entirely by the private sector - akin to cash bounties paid in the late 1800s by U.S. banks to vigilantes who hunted robbers.
    LOL...a new way to make money ...ya know im kidding
    But wow...M$ really did this?
    i also think they could raise it more...what bill gates has like what 30 bils...thats a lot more than those crapy $250,000....thats nothing to him

  7. #7
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    So.. it is assumed that if u use public PC's u can go scott free....

    That also further means that a hacker can actualy a create a havoc on a companies by using public PC's and go scott free....

    I had read the writer of Chennnr.... used to use public OC but he was still nabbed.... how would that have been possible.....

    What I am worried is when the govts and organizations are ready to pay such a hefty price to catch the culprit...inspite of so much of advancement in technology..... It implies that there are serious security holes in the current internet scenario.........

    I guess it is much more than using public systems... I guess as mentioned by our members.... the attackers are getting more and more stealthier.....

    That means that new tachnologies have to be invented to tackle this issue.......
    ****** Any man who knows all the answers most likely misunderstood the questions *****

  8. #8
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    What I am worried is when the govts and organizations are ready to pay such a hefty price to catch the culprit...inspite of so much of advancement in technology..... It implies that there are serious security holes in the current internet scenario.........
    Of course there are holes, there are holes in everything, computer related or not. However catching the person responsiable for writing and distributing this code would help to patch some holes. There is nothing Microsoft can really do, since I don't believe it really expliots any code. Maybe Microsoft should release Anti-Virus software with Windows, and have it update with Windows Update, it might help decrese the number of virus' abit. Who knows?

    I think while catching the person(s) responsiable for this virus by offering a reward is good, Microsoft and SCO have to deal with the fact they are still going to get attacked come Tuesday, and with people not being able to access anti-virus websites, they might have to deal with alot, unless they released a patch that would get rid of the Virus themself.

    Who knows...?

    Peace

    MB

  9. #9
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    This really isn't anything else but MS covering their own back. They've realized that their software is so buggy that any child can access it. So now they set out to scare the virii writers from making more viruses as people are starting to realize how insecure Windows really is.
    And as scriptkiddie18 said this is about 3 seconds worth of profit for Bill so all this is really doing is feeding the general public propaganda making them think that MS are serious and will put a stop to this.
    The truth is that if MS was serious about providing their users with security then the first thing they would do is to fix those damn bugs. It is a very dirty game they are playing, and they want to stay on top no matter what!
    -HDD

  10. #10
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    HDD, as MicroBurn said, this particular virus didn't make use of any holes in Windows. Instead, it just made use of the stupidity of the average Windows user. Microsoft was not to blame for this particular one. Had all UNIX users had root access to their systems and were as dumb as the average Windows user, this could have happened on UNIX as well.

    Cheers,
    cgkanchi
    Buy the Snakes of India book, support research and education (sorry the website has been discontinued)
    My blog: http://biology000.blogspot.com

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