'Good' Worms and Human Rights

Abstract

The extent of Internet censorship in countries like China is regularly tested, but the testing methods used from within a censored country can entail risk for humans. A benevolent worm can be used for testing instead: the worm’s selfreplication, long the bane of suggested benevolent viruses and worms, is shown to be essential here. We describe the design of this benevolent worm, along with some other related applications for it. A full technical, ethical, and legal analysis is provided.

Disclaimer: the following paper discusses a novel type of computer worm. Release of such a worm, and possibly even its creation, could result in severe legal penalties. We do not advocate the creation and release of this worm, but present it here for research purposes only.

Keywords: computer law