The company along with the Information Technology Association of America (ITAA), Interpol, the US Secret Service and the FBI, said it would give $250,000 to whoever turns in the authors.
The remaining $4.5 million will be allocated to rewards in future, in consultation with law enforcement.
It is a small amount given Microsoft’s vast wealth, but the amount will likely be enough to catch the attention of the teenage friends of the virus authors and/or independent security researchers.
After three months, Microsoft and law enforcement have been unable to catch the SoBig and Blaster writers.
It is understood the patchy coding in MSBlast suggests the culprit was probably not an accomplished hacker. SoBig, however, bears the marks of a more sophisticated coder.
While Smith said that this is currently a Microsoft-only initiative, it seems that the company, and law enforcement, is implicitly encouraging other vendors to follow suit.
Anti-virus experts say SoBig was in specifically written to infect and to spread from only Windows machines (although increased email traffic hit all systems).
Since it propagates through email, it doesn’t matter which operating system is being used as it spreads using one email program or another.
This article was based on material originally published by ComputerWire.
