University of Calgary offers virus writing class

Ted C · Post by **Ted C** » 2003-06-02 04:48pm

Please note that if you are a Canadian citizen, you will be breaking a Canadian law by reading chapter 2 of the following article. It gives the real name of a Canadian criminal -- codename "Mafiaboy" -- convicted of a major DOS attack that occurred in February 2000, and apparently Canadian juvenile privacy laws make publishing it illegal in Canada.

In short, though, a University of Calgary professor is going to teach a computer security course in which the students will be required to write real viruses (with the caveat that if one of these viruses ever gets loose, the student gets an automatic F in the course -- retroactively, I suppose, if the writer waits until the end of the semester to release his/her virus).

U.Calgary should encourage security rather than diminish it

Shinova · Post by **Shinova** » 2003-06-02 04:56pm

Well...I wonder if the government of Canada would ever crack down on this school.

Montcalm · Post by **Montcalm** » 2003-06-02 05:36pm

Screw the law i`ve read it.

Xenophobe3691 · Post by **Xenophobe3691** » 2003-06-02 05:40pm

Interesting...I wanna do this...

HemlockGrey · Post by **HemlockGrey** » 2003-06-02 05:51pm

The teacher is probably a government agent looking for new talent to flsh out a team of federal hackers and cyphers.

Or maybe not.

HemlockGrey · Post by **HemlockGrey** » 2003-06-02 05:51pm

*flesh out

kojikun · Post by **kojikun** » 2003-06-02 06:47pm

I think virus writing is considered a terrorist activity in the US, spread or unspread. Are we going to invade Canada for supporting terrorists?

Exonerate · Post by **Exonerate** » 2003-06-02 06:56pm

Hmm, I'd sign up if I quallified...

The Albino Raven · Post by **The Albino Raven** » 2003-06-02 06:59pm

hmm, sounds like an interesting course. There must be some kind of a catch though.

Zoink · Post by **Zoink** » 2003-06-03 04:29pm

Canadian's are banned from publishing a young offender's name, the disclaimer is to prevent the *publisher* from being in violation of Canadian law, although the disclaimer would be of no protection if the server was in Canada (you can't publish it at *all* in Canada).

My own reading of the young offenders act says nothing about it being illegal for Canadian citizens to read the page.

IMHO, the correct wording of the disclaimer should be something along the lines of: "I as publisher of this page do not permit Canadians to access the following document."

Please correct me if I am wrong!

Zoink · Post by **Zoink** » 2003-06-03 04:31pm

hmmm, just think'n:

You might be causing problems for Mike if his server is located in Canada. The law probably doesn't take kindly to Canadian-based links to his name either.

Post by **Sea Skimmer** » 2003-06-03 04:42pm

kojikun wrote:I think virus writing is considered a terrorist activity in the US, spread or unspread. Are we going to invade Canada for supporting terrorists?

If we don't war it up soon my heads gonna explode!