Wanted: Dead or Alive

This is in the NYT today, it's short, so here's the entire text:

Microsoft to Place Bounty on Virus Writers
By REUTERS

Published: November 5, 2003


Filed at 10:10 a.m. ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp. said on Wednesday it would offer cash bounties for information on the authors of the crippling MSBlast and Sobig computer bugs.

Microsoft, joined by U.S. and international law-enforcement groups, said it would offer $250,000 apiece for information leading to the arrest of the writers of two of the costliest computer-bug outbreaks to hit the Internet.

The bugs wreaked havoc across the world in August and September, attacking computers that run on Microsoft's Windows operating system.

My home computer is an Apple, as I've said before, so viruses are not a big worry for me there. Unfortunately, at work I use an IBM Thinkpad. Virus protection is a big deal, not just from the havoc it could wreak but because of all the work and expense our IT department has to go through keeping virus protection up to date.

Maybe this is long past due. Of course the reward is for information leading to the arrest, but I know some IT folks who wouldn't mind adding the "dead or alive" clause.