Ribbed for their pleasure

For all those file-sharing fanatics, it may be a good idea to crank up the computer security in the near future. Is the RIAA on another witchhunt? Nope, but there's a new Trojan horse on the horizon, and it's hungry for a wide variety of AVI, MP3, MPEG, WMV, and other formatted files.

This bane to the file-sharing public is known as the "Troj/Erazer-A horse" and its mission is to wipe out pirated files and security-related programs, which gives the hackers of the world a smorgasbord of opportunities to invade your computer.

"The Erazer Trojan is a vigilante worthy of a Charles Bronson movie, taking the law into its own hands. However, it's perfectly possible for the Trojan to aim poorly and wipe out innocent files too," said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant for Sophos. "The Erazer Trojan targets internet users it believes are involved in piracy, but fails to discriminate between the true criminals and those who may have MP3 music files or home movies that they have created themselves. Malware is not the way to fight internet piracy."

The people who create these trojans and other viruses are truly despicable. I'm sure they have their reasons for such loathsome activities, but the same argument could be made for Hitler, Saddam, Ted Bundy, and Michael Jackson. In a nutshell, they all suck.

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