Experts Fear $100 OLPC Will Spur Army of Malware Writers

I have written previously how stupid the idea of the 100 dollar “One Laptop Per Child” is going to be. Now some virus guru is saying that as an unintended side effect, there will be a new spate of malware generated by denizens of countries that do not provide high tech jobs. He has a good point.

From the Register Here:

Programs to send PCs to third world countries might inadvertently fuel the development of malware for hire scams, an anti-virus guru warns.

Eugene Kaspersky, head of anti-virus research at Kaspersky Labs, cautions that developing nations have become leading centres for virus development. Sending cheap PCs to countries with active virus writing cliques might therefore have unintended negative consequences, he suggests.

“A particular cause for concern is programs which advocate ‘cheap computers for poor third world countries’,” Kaspersky writes. “These further encourage criminal activity on the internet. Statistics on the number of malicious programs originating from specific countries confirm this: the world leader in virus writing is China, followed by Latin America, with Russia and Eastern European countries not far behind.”

I normally do not agree with Eugene Kaspersky, the Russian AV guru. He is usually considered by most security professionals to be a media whore who over-hypes the threats of malware and emergent viruses. However, in this case, the statistics he quotes are correct. It is often the poorest countries with the least opportunities for high tech jobs that generates cyber criminals.

Back in the 90’s, many of the most agressive hackers against the US banking system originated from Bulgaria and Romania- two countries whose denizens could not even pool their collective cash to buy a community computer.

Although I imagine that OLPC kids will likely only be able to generate a few Nigerian-type 419 email spams before the cheap laptops break.