The battle to keep the internet a safe place where laws, especially those concerning copyright, are respected, is often portrayed as a contest between good and evil.

People that produce and distribute viruses and worms aren't traditionally seen as guardians of all that is fair and just, but a Trojan that has cropped up in Japan suggests the creators have some degree of moral motivation for their actions.

Users of a controversial peer-to-peer (P2P) service known as Winny are being targeted by Troj/Pirlames-A, a Trojan horse-style piece of malware, that threatens to expose the recipient to the police.

The Trojan is hidden on Winny's network, posing as a screensaver. But when people download it, it overwrites files they have downloaded from the service, which are replaced by cartoon images, music, and threatening messages.

One of the messages that accompanies the image-based malware reads: "This is a visit from the prevalent Piro virus! Stop P2P! If you don't, I'll tell the police!".

"This is one of the most bizarre pieces of malware we have seen in our labs for quite some time, but it's data-destroying payload is no laughing matter," said Graham Cluley of security firm Sophos.

The tactics employed by the Trojan's creators present a dilemma - is it ok to target law-breakers in this way? A recent poll conducted by Sophos suggested that the majority of people don't feel it is justified to expose crimes by committing a criminal act yourself.

Sixty-four per cent of 233 respondents said that they did not think it was ok to illegally infect and hack into a PC if they thought it might belong to a child abuser.

http://www.sophos.com/

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