Anna virus writer offered IT job

The author who served up the AnnaKournikova virus, which last week knocked out email systems worldwide, has been offered a job by the mayor of his home town because of the publicity he created for the area.

According to local papers, Mayor Sieboldt Hartkamp was so pleased with the attention which the virus brought to the otherwise unknown Dutch town of Sneek, that he told the still unnamed virus writer to come in for "a serious interview" once he has completed his studies.

Mayor Hartkamp was quoted as saying: "It is obvious that the young man is very capable and it is in our interest to employ people like him in our IT department."

The story is reminiscent of the Love Bug case, when its Filipino author was made a national celebrity and received a flood of job offers from IT firms. The author of 1999's damaging CIH/Chernobyl virus was also employed by a software company that boasted about having headhunted the virus writer.

But the news was slammed by antivirus experts who labelled the virus distributors as "irresponsible" and said they should not be rewarded for their actions.

"Virus writers are like fire starters. They irresponsibly throw a lighted match into a wooded area without considering the consequences. A forest fire often results," said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant for Sophos. "Are these really the kind of people you would want to hire to work in the fire brigade?"

Cluley also questioned the technical ability of the "incapable" Kournikova virus writer after vnunet.com proved just how easy it was to create the code using a virus generation kit.

"Instead of society applauding virus writers, maybe it is time for us to teach youngsters that the damage caused by virus distribution is not only antisocial but a criminal offence in many countries," he said. "It isn't cool and it isn't clever. People who distribute viruses and worms cost companies money and make computing less fun for all of us."