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Whenever something like this happens I am always left wondering if it would be better to legalize and organize some sort of "locking service" which goes around the (national) IPs, finds the holes, breaks in, fixes the hole and sends a message to owner (if it is possible to determine who it is).

I think I am mostly aware of the implications, but I wonder if net effect would be positive...

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If that is all it will do why not write and release. Interesting analogy. Viruses are now understood to facilitate horizontal gene transfer. Viruses and the rest of our microbiome are functionally key constituents of the "human" organism. This relationship is not a one off. It is found, to a greater or lesser extent, in many biological systems. Yet, we have only formally welcomed one such distinction into the public discourse surrounding the Internet : Memes. I think there is an argument to be made that, software viruses are not absolutely bad, and that code once release has a life of its own. We should therefore accept, and in some circumstances embrace, such contributions to the code base of the Internet.

Unfortunately I doubt the net positive effect would be enough to bring in the money needed to fend of potential litigation when the service accidentally fixes something in a broken manner.

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