Author Makes Symbian Virus Code Available

putko writes "The NY Times (registration required) has a story about a Brazilian software expert whose posted the code for his Bluetooth virus on his website. The article has a general anti-free-exchange-of-information tone to it. Security firms call him bad. Nokia is concerned. Here's his homepage (in Portuguese), so let's not unnecessarily DDoS him: The most irritating bit of all this is that the guy writes the thing, distributes it, gives it a name (eponymous) and then the stupid virus firms go and butcher it -- e.g. "Lasco.A". What's so wrong with "Velasco" already? The guy clearly wants it to be named after himself."

Comments

I'm confused

[bwalling]

This posting seems rather sympathetic to this guy. Free exchange of information? Your credit cards are information - should I freely exchange those with everyone? So, not all information should be exchanged. Why should we be so nice to his website? He's not being so nice to our cell phones. And who cares what the name of the virus is? It's not like he discovered a new comet or something positive.

There's something to be said for being open and free, but there's also taking it too far.

I don't think there should be any debate here

[orasio]

The guy discovered a fundamental flaw, and is showing the need for a fix, forcing a fix, probably. That is actually a good thing. The guy is a good guy, and gets fixed something that is broken.
If he were a bad guy, he would be playing with your credit card, or even worse, shutting the hell up, and letting someone else discover the vulnerability, and using it.

Maybe you think he should have contacted the responsible firms first, but that's too delicate, he could even end up with legal trouble because of that (think.. extortion) .
This way he will probably get the vulnerability fixed, and bluetooth users are the ones who benefit.
I don't believe it's taking it too far.