Its an older book, but an excellent readSmileThe Little Black Book of Computer Viruses has seen fivegood years in print. In those five years it has opened a door to seriously ask the question whether it is better to make technical information about computer viruses known or not.


When I wrote it, it was largely an experiment. I had no idea what would happen. Would people take the viruses it contained and rewrite them to make all kinds of horrificly destructive viruses? Or would they by and large be used responsibly? At the time I wrote, o anti-virus people would even talk to me, and what I could find

in print on the subject was largely unimpressive from a factual standpoint—lots of hype and fear-mongering, but very little solid research that would shed some light on what might happen if I released this book. Being a freedom loving and knowledge seeking American, I decided to go ahead and do it—write the book and get it in print. And I decided that if people did not use it responsibly, I

would withdraw it.Five years later, I have to say that I firmly believe the book

has done a lot more good than harm.