Microsoft offers reward for catching worm creator

Published 17 February 2009

Microsoft offered a reward of $250,000 to find who is behind the Downadup/Conficker virus; since it started circulating in October 2008 the Conficker worm has managed to infect millions of Windows computers

Many newspapers and magazines have seen their advertising dollars decline as more and more advertisers prefer to advertise on the Internet. One of the exceptions is Soldier of Fortune magazine, which is brimming with advertising. The reason: 1990s saw the emergence of two trends which have increased the volume of soldier-for-hire business: First, the end of the cold war convinced many countries to slash their defense budgets, or otherwise achieve savings by outsourcing tasks which used to be carried out by soldiers (one example: the role Blackwater’s employees played in Iraq). The second trend, related to the first, was that such cuts in Western countries’ defense budgets, coupled with the end of the white apartheid regime in South Africa in 1991, saw many soldiers lose their government jobs, and these soldiers were looking for other employees. Private security and soldiering companies were the obvious choice. These private security companies soon found lucrative contracts, among them dictators in Africa who could not rely on the loyalty of their own soldiers (Laurent Kabila, Congo’s ruler, was killed by his body guards in 2001), and drug lords in Colombia, who preferred foreigners with expertise in commando tactics to guard them.

As we always say, where there is a security need, there is a business opportunity. Soon, therefore, we may see the launching of a digital  magazine called something like Cyber-Sleuth of Fortune. The first ad would be similar to the announcement by Microsoft, which offered a reward of $250,000 to find who is behind the Downadup/Conficker virus. Since it started circulating in October 2008 the Conficker worm has managed to infect millions of Windows computers.

The BBC’s Maggie Shiels reports that the software giant is offering the cash reward because it views the Conficker worm as a criminal attack. “People who write this malware have to be held accountable,” said George Stathakopulos, of Microsoft’s Trustworthy Computing Group. He told BBC News the company was “not prepared to sit back and let this kind of activity go unchecked.” He added that “Our message is very clear — whoever wrote this caused significant pain to our customers and we are sending a message that we will do everything we can to help with your arrest.”

Arbor Networks said as many as twelve million computers could be affected globally by Conficker/Downadup since it began prowling the web looking for vulnerable machines to infect in October.

The Conficker worm is a self-replicating program that takes advantage of networks or computers that have