Your best friend, Jonathon, spends all his free time writing computer programs that interact with the Windows operating system. He recently informed you that during fall break he had written malware that randomly erases files and displays weird messages the day before Independence Day (July 3) at exactly 1:00 p.m. He plans to distribute the Trojan horse, called Happy Birthday America, via an attachment to an e-mail message. Also included with the e-mail message is a hidden program that sends the same e-mail message to all the e-mail addresses in the user's address list. The e-mail message with the attachment will be sent as spam the day after finals in May, so that it will have ample time to be distributed to millions of computers worldwide before July 3. You know that a large software company offers a hefty reward of $250,000 for turning in unscrupulous programmers.
Do some online research to help you answer the following questions. Be sure to add the links of your research to your submission.
* What kind of costs would computer owners or businesses have to deal with as a result of this type of activity?
* Discuss if you think it is right to inform on a friend when no profit is involved in the crime. Give reasons why it is, or is not, right to inform on Jonathon.
* Include in your discussion who you would notify (i.e., Jonathon's parents, the dean of students, the police, or the software company offering the reward) if you choose to turn him in. Why would you choose that person or group?