is this ethical

[firemonkey]

I am building a collection of viruses, I think that its not a problem, the disk is clearly marked. But a few colleuges think that it is wrong and I shouldn't do it, what are your thoughts. I do not plan on doing harm with them. So whats the big deal?

[MacGyver]

Why?

[Gollo]

[quote]Originally posted by MacGyver:
<strong>Why?</strong><hr></blockquote>

I would say it's kinda like the person that collects coffee mugs.

Why?

Me I don't have a problem with it.... as long as the machine is not networked or you keep them all on cd.

[Wayward Clam]

I have a friend who does this.

The problems are twofold.

Firstly, there is the possibility that they may be accidentally released. (He once had some problems installing a program, and then realized that instead of the install disk, he had mistakenly grabbed the virus disk... no harm done that time, fortunately. )

The second potential problem is it's like having a weapon in your hand. If you get seriously ticked off at someone... and you have access to their computer... the potential will be there for you to want to use this.

If you trust yourself to not use it or to accept the consequences if you do, then no problem. If, however, you are the impulsive type who often regrets his own decisions... I would break the CD pretty quickly if I was you.

[Poseidon]

[quote]Originally posted by MacGyver:
<strong>Why?</strong><hr></blockquote>

He could study them and develope his own Anti Virus software.

[Platypus]

Obviously there are possible legitimate reasons for possessing a virus collection. I guess it's pretty hard to do anything to secure a disk with the infection active, but maybe you could show "good faith" by keeping anything that's in file form in a password-locked ZIP archive. Remember we seem to be becoming increasingly liable if any action or negligence on our part damages someone's data.

[Gameguru]

I personally have a collection and I keep them on a cd at my house. I have it marked and I'm the only one that has access to this disk. I have run them before on a computer HD that I have specifically set up for evaluation and removal of these things. I don't use them for anything malicious so I don't see any harm in keeping them.

JM2¢

[Cygnus]

I preffer to leave the Anti-Virus to the people who make a living killing that type of thing. I suppose it is a bit odd to want to keep that stuff so close to you, but much stranger things have happened before.

I have been on the internet just about constantly since 1990 and ive run across alot of viruses in that time, but I have NEVER gotten a virus on my own PC. keeping things like that lying around would only increase my chances of getting one.

[firemonkey]

This seems to be a fairly interesrting debate. I can control my self to not spread it too far, I am aware that by having it I do have to be more careful, but I and teh techs I work with know what and where it is and all show respect to what damage they can do, but so far I have found it usefull for testing antivirus programs, I am surprised what has gotten by the antivirus. I will do some more research and give my report later

[joelen]

Firemonkey...

I see no problem with this at all, in fact I too keep a collection of viruses. I have also prior to formating and reinstalling windows on my PC, uninstalled my AV software and ran as many at once just to see how toasted things can really get! Kinda fun if you ask me. (this was done with both my NIC and Modem disconected.)

I keep them on CD, and it is labeld with BIG LABEL that says, "LIVE VIRUSES DO NOT TOUCH" and my wife knows not to use the CD at all.

I have found it helpful in the past to infect a pc with viruses so that i can help others over the phone go thru manuall removal.

[techguy13]

I started keeping a collection of viruses after I auto-cured an infected PC only to render the .exe files unexecutable without the virus present. Fortunately it was a networked NT box so I was able to edit the registry remotely to solve the problem. Also a good way to test new/free AV software for effectiveness.

[AlienDyne]

Collecting viruses isn't a big deal, as long as the collector is not planning to use them.
I have a collection of viruses myself. No, I'm not downloading them from the web. I just zip infected files from customers' machines and put them on a CD-Rewritable disk. In addition to that, I'm not willing to study them or anything. After all, I'm too busy to start playing with Assembly again.
As I said above, a virus collection is harmless as long as the user is not willing to start using it. There are lots of other kinds of collections that can be harmful as well, like illegal pornography.