Microsoft is offering $250,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person or group responsible for the spread of virus software Conficker.

The Software giant partnered with Internet registries and DNS providers such as ICANN, ORG, and NeuStar as well as security vendors Symantec and Arbor Networks.

By combining our expertise with the broader community, we can expand the boundaries of defense to better protect people worldwide, said George Stathakopoulos, general manager of Microsoft's Trustworthy Computing Group.

But questions are arising as to whether these steps would stop malicious or software viruses from birth. This is not the first time that Microsoft has offered reward for the capture of internet criminals.

In 2003 and 2004 the company put up $500,000 for the conviction of the author of the Blaster and Sobig worms and paid $250,000 to a group of German students whose classmate, Sven Jaschan, was the author of the Sasser and Netsky worms.

Now the conficker creator is in the middle of spinning walls and if they are not going to stop from this it just only means that the creator was not small time fish or a student. From this then the birth of a cyberwarfare is just around the corner.

Malware