TechRepublic - IT Security: There is no legal solution to malware

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Someone is always trying to come up with a solution to malware based on criminal penalties. Unfortunately, that's not a very realistic approach to solving the problem.

April 29th, 2009
By Chad Perrin

In response to my recent article, Why do people write viruses?, I have run across proposals for legal solutions to the problem of self-propagating mobile malicious code and other malware. The proposals involve such solutions as mandatory prison sentences, corporal punishment (e.g., public caning), and even capital punishment (i.e., public execution). One suggestion involved a month’s incarceration — without access to a computer, of course — per discrete infection, sentences running consecutively, potentially leading to several lifetimes’ worth of incarceration for particularly successful viruses.

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