What do they do to these people who write and send out viruses if they are caught? Do they go to prison, pay a fine or what?

Unless they have hacked into some large corporation's computer and caused damages to that company, they wouldn't go to prison.....they can end up going to court and having to pay fines, but unfortunately, it is SO difficult to track and prove that that particular person is the guilty party. Oftentimes, someone sends it out unknowingly.....the person who actually created it never gets caught....
too bad huh???
Have you recently been infected? (yikes, sounds personal doesn't it!!) hee-hee

see my post entitled HELP!!!!!!!! in the subheading. IT was a nasty one, but it is gone now. Interesting thread, read it.

The whole world, including our banking system and defence systems etc, are connected to the www. Computer viruses could be as much a threat as someone who blows up buildings. Anyone caught making a computer virus should have to do the same kind of jail time that any other saboteur would have to do.

Gamin: Not all defense systems are hooked up to the web, and those that are have multiple protection devices. The military does not depend on computers at all for high-security transfers. There are strict guidelines for security clearances and materials, including some like the simple 2-person rule, which preclude use of digital equipment.

The military uses it's own versions of the internet with security clearances and have no connection whatever to the www. For example, I used to have access to my ship's SIPRnet (I think it stood for something like secret-level internet provider resource).

The military often prefers radio transmission to wire transmission because of speed and non-dependance on landlines. We didn't buy all those satellites for nuthin! For this, encryption has new options beyond 128- and 256-bit, like frequency-hopping and multiplexing. No way of getting a virus through that!

Most bases that offer internet access to service members have restrictions and firewalls up the wazzoo, making the internet virtually "read-only". Usually only network administrators know how or where to bypass the firewalls or have permissions to access what common users can't. I've seen a few viruses get through where I am now, and they've always led straight to the administrators, and they were stopped pretty quickly. (Can you imagine a platoon of gruff military geeks beating down doors, discs in hand, locking office doors and cleaning network pc's?) Mostly we're restricted from accessing porno, performing software downloads, and using web-based e-mail like yahoo and msn. (Service members have e-mail through military sources or they use Outlook through the base server.)

This past Saturday, I received over 30 spam Emails all listing the same site. My opinion is the senders were unaware their account had been invaded by a trojan horse. Every Email was forwarded to TOSSpam@AOL.

Whoever is behind this should be prosecuted, and until this harassment stops.

NC <><

It is unfortunate that most of us learn to protect our systems after we have been infected. No one likes to learn the hard way.
Always keep an updated anti-virus and run it frequently. If you are connected to the www a lot then I suggest you also have a Firewall so you can control all traffic. Then learn how to use these programs. Go to security sites like www.grc.com. Security education and the www go hand in hand.
Learned the hard way rek.
I love that smiley with the toilet.
Gotta go get it.