US authorities nab Blaster writer
Monday, September 01 2003
by Frances Gleeson
US officials confirmed that they have arrested an 18-year-old man and charged him with modifying the deadly Blaster worm and re-releasing it onto the Net.
It is believed that the man, Jeffrey Lee Parson from Hopkins, Minnesota, did not write the original Blaster worm, the malicious computer code that last month was named as one of the fastest spreading viruses of all time. But Parson, who was described as a loner by neighbours, is believed to have altered the worm and re-released it onto the Internet in order to track its progress in cyberspace.
Like the original Blaster worm, Parson's variant turned infected computers against Microsoft, attacking that company's Windowsupdate.com Web site in a sustained assault. The Parson variant infected an estimated 7,000 computers before Parson was nabbed by authorities. Although Parson was only named on Friday, authorities had stormed the teenager's home earlier in the month in connection with their investigation and seized a number of computers.
Law enforcement officials tracked down Parson after observing the behaviour of his worm, which connected back to Parson's own Web site,
www.t33kid.com.
Because Microsoft is considered to be the worst affected by the Blaster and Blaster variant attacks, Parson's case will be heard in a court in Seattle, near Microsoft's headquarters. If convicted, the high-school student could be imprisoned for up to 10 years. The author of the original Blaster worm has not yet been caught.
Earlier this month, the original Blaster worm took less than four days to infect more than a million computers worldwide and has since caused a still-unspecified amount of damage in the form of lost productivity. Microsoft said its damage from the worm and worm variants cost the company millions of dollars.
Speaking at a press conference on Friday, Brad Smith, Microsoft senior vice president and general counsel, said the damage done to Microsoft by the Parson variant was minimal when compared to the disruption caused to computer users worldwide.
"If we are to be effective in solving this problem, law enforcement and our industry need to work together," Smith said. "And as we have seen, when the private and public sectors do work together, people that commit crimes on the Internet can and will be caught."
Antivirus company Symantec still considers the original Blaster worm to be a serious Category 4 threat and has posted a Blaster removal tool on its Web site.
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