In an effort to help law enforcement agencies identify and bring to justice those who illegally release damaging worms, viruses, and other types of malicious code on the Internet, Microsoft has created the Microsoft® Antivirus Reward Program, initially funded with US$5 million. Through this program, Microsoft will offer monetary rewards to persons who provide information that leads to the arrest and conviction of those responsible for launching malicious viruses and worms on the Internet. Both the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Secret Service, in coordination with Interpol, will investigate leads that are provided through this program in order to identify and prosecute those responsible for such crimes that harm the private industry and the public.
Microsoft is offering three rewards under the Antivirus Rewards Program.
| • | The first reward, in the amount of US$250,000, is for information that results in the arrest and conviction of those responsible for launching the MSBlast.A worm (also known as Blaster). The worm was designed to prevent consumers from installing the latest software updates by attacking Microsoft's Windows® Update website, which provides updates to help users protect their computers against malicious attacks. |
| • | The second reward, in the amount of $250,000, is for information that results in the arrest and conviction of those responsible for launching the Sobig virus. This virus, the first variant of which was detected on January 10, 2003, attacked individual machines and sent itself to each e-mail address in the computer's contact list. The Sobig.B and Sobig.C variants of the virus made messages appear as if they had come from official Microsoft e-mail addresses. |
| • | The third reward, in the amount of $250,000, is for information that results in the arrest and conviction of those responsible for launching the Mydoom.B worm. Mydoom.B is a variant of the MyDoom.A worm, also known as the Novarg worm, which spread quickly to infect computers worldwide. The release of Mydoom.B triggered the first alert from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's new National Cyber Alert System. |