Now we don't go in for outrageously irresponsible headline-grabbing stories much at IT Week, more's the pity, but this week's cover lead is a little something that sprung out of the latest McAfee Virtual Criminology Report. And it's dark. Written with co-operation from various computer crime-fighting agencies across the globe, the report highlights that organised crime is recruiting from IT courses at universities and specialist schools, tempting students and graduates with lucrative salaries to write malware and engage in other nefarious activities.

Which is all very reminiscent of KGB recruiting tactics apparently, I mean, like in the good old days, when spies were spies, before people started messing around with radioactive material and the like. It might all sound a bit far-fetched, and the cynical would suggest it is in the interests of security vendors to create a climate of fear and uncertainty in which their solutions seem to provide some kind of reassurance.

Trend Micro's CTOs made similar remarks as McAfee last week, calling on educational establishments to teach more about ethics, which is a nice idea but I wonder how much that will really influence those IT students who get involved in cyber crime. I mean, computer science graduates might be many things, but surely they're not so completely unaware of their social, legal and cultural surroundings that they need someone to teach them it? Well, on the other hand...