Fujitsu To Develop Vigilante Computer Virus For Japan

Posted by Soulskill on Tuesday January 3, 2012 @07:25AM from the which-will-lead-to-anti-anti-virus-viruses dept.

wiedzmin writes "Japanese Defense Ministry has awarded Fujitsu a contract to develop a vigilante computer virus, which will track down and eliminate other viruses, or rather — their sources of origin. Are 'good' viruses a bad idea? Sophos seems to think so, saying, 'When you're trying to gather digital forensic evidence as to what has broken into your network, and what data it may have stolen, it's probably not wise to let loose a program that starts to trample over your hard drives, making changes.'"

1 of 129 comments (clear)

Min score:

Reason:

Sort:

Re:A Polite Virus by nman64 · 2012-01-03 07:37 · Score: 5, Insightful

Malicious authors would love that - another angle for them to take advantage of. Anyone with clue isn't going to trust a polite virus unless they've been told to expect it, and by the time they've been told this polite virus is friendly, the malicious authors will already be using polite messages to get users clicking where they want them to.