"We have a relationship with Microsoft Australia that covers a whole range of issues pertinent to law enforcement, and we were aware of the initiative," Alastair MacGibbon, director of the High Tech Crime Centre told ZDNet Australia . Microsoft has offered bounties of US$250,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the writers of the MSBlast or Sobig viruses.
MacGibbon warned the bounty was not a "silver bullet", and they wouldn't be able to gauge the success of the initiative until it had been in operation for a while. "An awards program in itself is not a complete answer to crime prevention, it needs to be done in conjunction with traditional law enforcement," he said.
"This is one extra tool, and a welcome tool, that allows us to continue our investigations," said MacGibbon. "It may increase the quality and flow of information relating to these types of crimes."
MacGibbon said he didn't think the program would result in false reports to the police, and warned there were penalties for reporting false information.
Microsoft set up the bounty scheme with the FBI and Secret Service in the United States, and Interpol. The AFP partners with those agencies in fighting crime.
MacGibbon said that anyone with information on writers of malicious code could contact the High Tech Crime Centre through www.ahtcc.gov.au, although he stressed that the centre was not designed to help people whose computers had been infected by a virus or worm.
