Allan Dyer
In the November 2002 newsletter I reported on Jimmy Kuo's suggestion at AVAR 2002 that legislation was needed to allow individuals or the authorities to counter strike against machines that are infected and attacking others. The debate on this idea continues, Timothy M. Mullen, who proposed the idea last July, has defended it on Security Focus, see: http://online.securityfocus.com/columnists/134.
Mr. Mullen seems firmly in favour of empowering individuals to take action. Personally, I fear that this would lead to over-enthusiastic vigilantism, so the power should be in the hands of a competent authority. Such an authority would have to be established to react quickly - this may prove difficult for the USA justice system, which took two years to sentence David L. Smith, the author of the Melissa virus. Interestingly, Mr. Mullen presents some examples of comparable cases where an individual is targeted for the good of society, "If parents don't vaccinate their children, the state takes them out of school. If a dog consistently attacks people, the authorities put it down", these show we rely on a competent authority, not individuals, to take action in such cases.