Japanese authorities have arrested their first virus
writer, but only for breaching copyright.
Malware on a
file-sharing network displayed anime characters on users'
screens while wiping music and movie files.
It is not illegal to write a computer virus in Japan, but the
authorities there have arrested three men alleged to have been
involved in a plot to infect users of the
Winny file-sharing
network.
Police in Kyoto made the arrests after a Trojan horse on the
network displayed images of popular anime characters while wiping
MP3 and movie files.
The malware has been dubbed "Harada" in media reports, and is
believed to be related to the
Pirlames Trojan horse which appeared last year.
One of the men is alleged to have written the malware, while the
other two are believed to have distributed the malicious code via
Winny.
"It is not illegal to write viruses in Japan, so the author of
the Trojan horse has been arrested for breaching copyright because
he used cartoon graphics without permission in his malware," said
Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at web security firm
Sophos.
"Because this is the first arrest in Japan of a virus writer, it
is likely to generate a lot of attention and there may be calls for
cybercrime laws to be made tighter," he said.