7 replies to this topic

[ki4jgt]

How much trouble would I get in for writing a virus, which scans it's host system for other viruses, alerts the user that there has been a virus found on the system and tells them how to get rid of it, asks the user if they'd like a copy sent to everyone in their address book, if so, sends it and then deletes itself.

All while claiming plausible deniability b/c technically I wasn't the person who willingly sent the virus. The person who said yes, was.

[WingedPanther]

This just sounds like a bad idea, and not very helpful (since the targeted virus would just be rewritten to avoid your anti-virus virus).

[DarkLordofthePenguins]

None, assuming it's only for experimental purposes and you don't actually send it to anyone. Writing viruses can't get you in trouble, but using them to take control of someone else's computer is illegal.

[zoranh]

How would you technically do that, even if you suppose you're legally right? Virus databases are hundreds of megabytes large today, and also local file systems contain hundreds of thousands of files - finding a virus, even if it is present, is not easy task at all.

[Alexander]

The only way somebody can actually scan for virii with a successful scan rate and low false positives without losing hundreds, is for them to charge money for it to be removed. Putting THAT many features into a program for free is a bit silly.

[DarkLordofthePenguins]

Law enforcement takes cyber crimes very seriously.

[Momerath]

ki4jgt said:

How much trouble would I get in for writing a virus, which scans it's host system for other viruses, alerts the user that there has been a virus found on the system and tells them how to get rid of it, asks the user if they'd like a copy sent to everyone in their address book, if so, sends it and then deletes itself.

And your twenty or so 'friends' then all send you back a copy, along with copies to all the people you have that are mutual friends. Suddenly you are sending thousands of copies to each person and their computer crashes because it can't handle the load.

[ki4jgt]

Momerath said:

And your twenty or so 'friends' then all send you back a copy, along with copies to all the people you have that are mutual friends. Suddenly you are sending thousands of copies to each person and their computer crashes because it can't handle the load.

Understood I'm thinking it would have to be 300KB or something to that effect. the original which would check to see if the system had already been scanned recently If yes, then it would delete itself.