Coding with Jesse

Patching Worm

If someone were to write a worm that went around the Internet, eliminating the vulnerability of the computers it passes through, is that immoral? Is it illegal? Since the worm is doing no damage (unless you consider patching a hole to be damaging somehow), I wonder what the implications would be. What would people say if Microsoft released a patching-worm before someone released a damaging one?

Published on August 29th, 2005. © Jesse Skinner

About the author

Jesse Skinner

I'm Jesse Skinner. I'm a self-employed web developer. I love writing code, and writing about writing code. Sometimes I make videos too. Feel free to email me if you have any questions or comments, or just want to share your story or something you're excited about.