Microsoft's Anti-Virus Reward Program
On November 5, 2003, Microsoft Corporation announced the creation of the Anti-Virus Reward Program which was initially funded with $5 million to aid law enforcement agencies identify and ultimately prosecute those who illegally "release damaging worms, viruses and other types of malicious code on the Internet" (Microsoft pg). Moreover, Microsoft will provide the monetary rewards for information that results in the arrest and conviction of anyone responsible for launching malicious viruses and worms on the Internet (Microsoft pg). This reward system will be available to residents of any country according to the laws of that country, due to the fact that Internet viruses affect the Internet community worldwide (Microsoft pg).
Microsoft announced the first reward as part of the Reward Program, in the amount of $250,000 for information leading to the "arrest and conviction of those responsible for unleashing the MSBlast.A worm" (Microsoft pg). Although two arrests have been made in connection with the B. And C. variants of the MSBlast...
"The worm was designed to attack Microsoft's www.windowsupdate.comWeb site, which provides fixes for vulnerabilities and helps protect users against malicious attacks" (Microsoft pg).
Furthermore, Microsoft has offered another $250,000 reward for information resulting in the arrest and conviction of the party or parties responsible for unleashing the Sobig virus (Microsoft pg). The first variant of this virus was detected January 10, 2003, and "attacked individual machines and e-mailed itself to each e-mail address in the computer's contact list," then the "Sobig.B and Sobig.C variants of the virus made messages appear as if they had come from official Microsoft e-mail addresses" (Microsoft pg). So far no arrests have been made in connection with this virus (Microsoft pg).
Brad Smith, Microsoft's senior vice president and general counsel, said, "
Malicious worms and viruses are criminal attacks on everyone who uses the Internet... Even as…
