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Security Researcher Faces Jail For Finding Bugs

An anonymous reader writes "French security researcher Guillaume Tena, who is working at Harvard University, faces 4 months in prison after being sued by Tegam for reverse engineering its Viguard antivirus software and publishing exploit codes for a number of vulnerabilities. According to a ZDNet article, he could also be sued by Tegam for 900,000 euros in damages. More details are available (in french) on Guillaume's website and on the K-OTik's website."

7 of 726 comments (clear)

  1. Re:What's next? by __int64 · · Score: 5, Funny

    No, but these two chicks up stairs will be if they keep it up...

  2. Chilling Effect by grcumb · · Score: 5, Funny

    Stories like this are just the Slashdot editors' way of warning us to shut up already about the Firefox rendering errors on this site. 8^)

    --
    Crumb's Corollary: Never bring a knife to a bun fight.
  3. karma by frovingslosh · · Score: 5, Funny

    It will all work out. Next time a virus writer gets caught he'll both sue Tegam and have their officer's arrested for reverse engineering his code.

    --
    I'm an American. I love this country and the freedoms that we used to have.
  4. Re:FYI by scotch · · Score: 4, Funny

    You should do something about that cough - maybe see a doctor? I know when I cough, it's never so bad that I type out the noises. Perhaps you're using one of those voice recognition software systems? Best of luck and good health to you.

    --
    XML causes global warming.
  5. Where is James T. Kirk when we need him?! by flargleblarg · · Score: 5, Funny

    And my guess is, that's exactly what will happen. The company made a mistake by producing flawed software. The researcher didn't make that mistake, only pointed it out. With these flaw(s) pointed out, the company didn't handle it in a grown-up manner. Instead of fixing the mistake, focusses on attacking the messenger. Dumb: mistake #2, again made by the company. And only makes the problem worse.

    KIRK: "Tegam, what is your purpose?"

    TEGAM: "We are Te-Gam. We produce perfect software. We sterilize imperfections."

    KIRK: "Tegam, you produced flawed software. You are imperfect.

    TEGAM: "We are Te-Gam. We are perfect. We sterilize imperfections."

    KIRK: "Tegam, you produced flawed software. That was your first mistake. You released the software without realizing this. That was your second mistake."

    TEGAM: "Error! Error!"

    KIRK: "Tegam, you handled the Tena situation in a childish manner. Instead of fixing your mistake, you focused on attacking the messenger. You sued the messenger. That was your third mistake.

    TEGAM: "Error! Error! Faulty! Faulty! Must sterilize!"

  6. Re:If I break in your car... by God!+Awful+2 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Me, I truly believe information should be free, and only personal information (like, your bank account #'s, passcodes, etc) has any business being private. I'm a big supporter of all our little neo-communist mechanisms in the OSS movement. But really...don't get ownership of a car confused with ownership of software.

    Wow, you wrote a post on /. that:

    1. stated that software is *not* like a car
    2. mentioned OSS and communism in the same sentence

    and you were modded informative, not flamebait?!? You, my friend, are truly a god among gods.

    -a

  7. Re:If I break in your car... by Feztaa · · Score: 4, Funny

    I don't know about you, but I would always prefer to know well in advance if my car was either easy to steal or about to explode.

    Ahhhhh, but if it was both easy to steal and about to explode, well, that problem just sort of solves itself, no?