djackson 22568 (7/28/2014)

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Steve, While I agree that the guy broke the law, the points you made in your post stopped too soon. Before I comment on that, let me be clear that I believe the points you made are correct.

IMO the guy uncovered evidence of a crime. I do not believe that can be disputed. Federal law covers writing a virus and deploying it. The first thing you need to do when you find corporate resources infected by a virus is to report it to the team that handles that. You then need to let your boss know.

Now when you then find your reports were ignored, and you fail to notify authorities, you are in fact legally accountable for failing to report the crime. This is not just my opinion, it is the opinion of an FBI agent who attended a seminar about this very topic, and gave advice on how to respond. Whether the crime was committed by your employer or not is irrevelant. The fact that federal law was broken, especially in this manner where thousands of people are affected, means you have the responsibility to act.

How you act is what matters. The guy in the post got upset, and chose the wrong path. Had he notified authorities he would have been protected. As much as the federal government frustrates me and others with their illegal acts, I can't believe the FBI would have ignored his report of this type of crime. They tend to ignore specific types of crimes, but not these.

Had he done nothing, and someone else reported this, he would have still had his home raided by the FBI. He might still have been charged. It is possible he feared this, and acted out of that fear, but more likely he just had a case of stupidity.