A virus author responded today to the theme of Sage. Said he was the author of Leprosy and Leprosy.B.

Since we just topped 200,000 malware detections, his two comprise .001% of that total. Tiny trifling amount. But Gartner just released data for the Worldwide Antivirus Software Market for 2005 with a figure exceeding US$4B. Let's see, 200,000 is to 2 as $4 billion is to … $40,000. That would be one measure of Neil McAllister's burden on society for 2005.

The problem with writing viruses, they never go away. There is an associated cost to society for the deed that cannot be undone. And for this reason (and many others) you continually hear, no antivirus company will hire ex-virus writers. No matter how "ex" they are, their creations live on.