Microsoft and Cybersecurity Superfriends Offer $US250k for Conficker Worm Maker
Microsoft is offering a $US250,000 bounty for the Conficker worm’s designer. Microsoft isn’t alone in this hunt for the writer of the biggest PC worm in recent history.
They’ve got a team of superfriends involved with the hunt:
Symantec, F-Secure, VeriSign, Afilias, Internet Systems Consortium (ISC), and the Shadowserver Foundation.
The worm itself is dangerous, although it hasn’t done any real damage yet. It has infected 15m PCs so far, setting them up for a yet-to-come malicious payload.
Two hard questions come to mind. Why can’t the FBI handle this? And wouldn’t that money be better spent on PSAs informing users to install the available patch for the vulnerability? Then again, I suppose that they’re sending a message to all hackers. Microsoft will buy off your friends, and at least one of them will sell you out. That, and Microsoft is scared of you. [Yahoo via BBG]
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Comments (AU Comments | US Comments)
Microsoft may make a big splash with the headlines, but we are still getting hundreds of visitors each day trying to get the Conficker (Downadup) virus off their home or network system. They are blocked from Microsoft support and anti-virus sites but the infection, have little direction from the industry, and are being charged serious money by ‘rent-a-geeks’ to ‘repair’ their systems. This so-called Conficker Cabal should make some effort to help the single pc victims – especially those on XP Home Edition who cannot easily disable AutoPlay. These infected machines will be a continuing source for reinfection.