The Security Mentor

There's a piece of malicious software making the rounds that goes into your file sharing directory and wipes out multimedia files. It also shuts down your security. If you're running antivirus, it turns it off. If you're running antispyware, ditto. If you're running a software firewall like Zonealarm, this Trojan will leave you exposed to the Internet unprotected. Details here for your technical friends.

PC World reports this as a vigilante program guarding PCs against malicious software from file sharing systems.

Drivel. It's not going to protect anything except by an unlikely accident. First, it doesn't delete executable files, the most dangerous kind. It leaves them alone while it deletes multimedia files. It deletes all multimedia files without virus scanning them. And of course, let's use some common sense, vigilantes don't kill police officers and a "vigilante" program doesn't turn off legitimate security software.

It's not even an illegal antipiracy program. It doesn't have a list of files that the copyright holders want to keep off filesharing networks. It deletes everything: open source software, free samples of music and video, and independent works.

A Taste of the Future

Not long ago, Utah Senator Orrin Hatch was trying to make this sort of crime legal, proposing to allow computer breakins to search for and delete materials which (in someone's opinion, anyway) infringed copyright. He hasn't gotten his way yet but this program is his vision made real.