With the consumer Wi-Fi explosion, launching a virus into the wild has never been easier and more anonymous than it is today. Like a sneeze in a crowded subway, it's hard to find the human source of the latest viral infection. On the Internet it's not much different. The people who write these nasty little programs and release them into the wild almost never get caught. Why? The answer is easy, but it's also a sort of technical nemesis: there's simply no way to track these people down.

The current approach to catching virus writers isn't working. Code analysis and disassembly provides clues about the author, but it's not enough. Virus writers boast of their accomplishments in private bulletin boards, yet only the most vocal and arrogant few will get caught. Even with logs, IP addresses and private access, it's still near impossible to track them down.

By Kelly Martin at The Register.

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