Arrest In The ILOVEYOU Case

jacobm writes "All the news sources- CNN, ABC News, Security Focus, CNET news, and everyone else on the planet- are reporting that a man in the Phillipines has been arrested in the ILOVEYOU virus case. It appears that the virus had identifying information all over it, which makes me a bit suspicious that this could be a set-up, but on the other hand, you should never attribute to malice what can be explained by stupidity." Update: 05/08 12:50 by J : Because you haven't yet read enough about ILOVEYOU, read this (Gates opines that breaking up MS will lead to more viruses).

Comments

Re:Why Blame the Hacker?

[mindstrm]

Okay. Please explain why it's microsoft's fault.

This was not due to any bug. It was straight, clean vbscript (analogous to mailing a perl script)
It did not execute automatically, unless users had their machines configured very strangely.

I could mail you a perl script as attachemnt that did the exact same thing. The only reason it wouldn't work is because you would be smart enough not to run it.

So. Blame the stupid users who, even though it's repeated over and over again, execute email attachments without thinking about it first.

Opportunistic lies from Bill Gates

[thrig]

Bill Gates complaining that a breakup of Microsoft would hinder fighting the I LOVE YOU-style email virus reeks of opportunism; instead of monoloplizing the industry, Microsoft should have been fixing their security-deficient products that are the root of the problem.

Re:Opportunistic lies from Bill Gates

[Michael "Jaffo" Duff]

I was a Microsoft sympathizer, until just this moment. I've always opposed government action in this case, confident that the market would take care of itself. Big, inefficient corporations eventually collapse under their own weight, and although it looks slow to us, natural corrections are ultimately more efficient than artificial ones. I've also been sympathetic to Microsoft because I felt Gates was getting a bum rap from elite computer users (read Linux users). It's not his fault the majority of buyers are idiots. The ignorance of the marketplace is the real villain here. I'm not a programmer and I don't run a server, so Microsoft products do what I need done in a reasonable manner. So I have never jumped on the Bash Gates bandwagon. But this, this is beyond the pale. This is the last straw. Allowing people to run visual basic scripts from email is dumb enough, but now Gates is using his own shitty programming as an excuse to keep the company together! This is like a boy murdering his parents and asking for pity because he's an orphan! Shameless audacity. Disgusting. "Features" my ass.

"Arrested?"

[phenomenologism]

only Slashdot and the Security Focus article uses the word "arrested." the others use "detained" or "taken into custody." in fact, the cnn.com article states that he was "'invited' to answer questions because officers did not have arrest warrants for him."

is there a real distinction between being detained and being arrested in the Philippines? i know there's a huge one here in the US, but i imagine the area might be a little grayer elsewhere. . .can anyone enlighten?

Does the world really need any more proof??

[Spudley]

Well, I don't know enough about the facts of the case to even begin to judge whether this person is guilty or not, so I'll leave that whole hot-potato topic alone.

BUT I do know that this whole saga has proved a point that I've been shouting about for ages:
The computer world can be compared to the natural world. You need a good gene pool. If all of us had the same genetic make-up, we would get wiped out by the first new disease to come along. So why does the entire world insist on using the same software?
If everyone and his dog is using MS Windows and Outlook, then of course if a virus comes along which hits that combination, everyone and his dog will be affected.
The world is not a safe place if everyone uses the same thing. It doesn't matter if it's an MS app, or an open-source server, you have to have healthy competition. Diversity is the only way we can protect ourselves.

Usually, when I start off like this, people say "Oh, but I need to be compatible".
I say: "You don't need to run the same software to be compatible - just use compatible file formats".

Sorry if my ranting is straying off-topic; I needed to say it. :-)