SCI/TECH: Blaster Worm Creator Gets 18 Months

Nineteen year old Jeffrey Lee Parson was sentenced to 18 months in prison for distributing the prolific and damaging Blaster virus in 2003. Parson will also have to complete 10 months of community service and pay restitution to Microsoft and to those computer users affected by the virus. He pled guilty in 2004 to creating and distributing the virus which opened security holes in infected machines and launched a denial of service attack againt the Microsoft website.



"I know I've made a huge mistake and I hurt a lot of people and I feel terrible," said Parson in court during sentencing.

Blaster infected 48,000 computers and was rated a threat category 3 at Symantec's Security Response webiste.

Parson reportedly suffers from agoraphobia, rendering it difficult for him to leave the house. Judge Pechman, who heard the sentencing portion of the trial, took this into consideration when determining his sentence. She placed partial blame for his actions on his parents and on the internet.



Related News Links:
securityresponse.symantec.com

[edit on 29-1-2005 by Banshee]

that damned troublemaking interweb......
they need to get rid of it.

And then he has a nice little scrypt writing job ahead

While Microsoft should have found and patched the bugs before something like Blaster happened, it doesnt let the snot nosed punk off the hook in my book. Every geek worth their snot had their phones ringing off the hook as people called them asking wtf was up with their computers when that thing hit. Quite frankly I think 1.5 years is letting the dude off, he should get a probational period like Mitnick did once he was released from prision; might make him think before he codes anything ever again. Saying his parents were partially to blame is retarded, they didnt help him debug his code or look for the hole in the first place.

Originally posted by cruzion
that damned troublemaking interweb......
they need to get rid of it.

Did you know they have the internet for computers now!

I think they should have gave him a job at one of our intelligence agencies. We need guys like him.

A few years ago while browsing the Internet exploring how to build an anti-virus software, I have found a software kit to develop various types of viruses. The software asked you what fetures you wanted to include in the virus and in no time you had a new breed of virus available for distribution. The software did not require any knowledge of software programming.

My opinion is that until this kind of software is available, viruses will contibue to be produced all over the world. But the question that comes to my mind is: who has created the software kit? Terrorists? At that time 9/11 didn't happen yet. Let me guess: could it be that ant-virus companies supply this kind of software in order to create a market and gain an immediate competitive advantage by knowing how to fix the bug? This would translate into big big bucks.

Probably the teenager is just a victim of the system.

I would shut down and ban all anti-virus companies and force all OS suppliers to embed a protection mechanism inside their products.
I am confident that viruses will be a memory of the past!

WisdonMaster says:

"I would shut down and ban all anti-virus companies and force all OS suppliers to embed a protection mechanism inside their products. I am confident that viruses will be a memory of the past!"

I gather that you do not live in the United States. In my country, our rule-book, callen The Constitution, forbids us from shutting down companies because a paranoiac believes they're engaged in illegal activity. That would be like shutting down Ford and GM because, by building cars, they're plotting to kill us all in traffic accidents.

I still have my 'Free Kevin' sticker on the bumper of my van.

Personally I couldn't care less about this particular wormer, but the concept of a free, open, and anonymous internet is worth protecting. The idea that real person has to go to jail (you know, that place where they torture, assault, and rape you) for re-arranging ephemeral 0's and 1's, that's ludicrous to me.

I think the internet could serve well in the capacity of virtual frontier city, to relieve the pressures of mundane life. The internet could remain the wild west forever, with some lawmen, bandits, gamblers, whores, layabouts and a piano player.

I think it's highly important that people maintain perspective when sentencing a case like this. It's critical to assess the real damage done, not just the overblown claims spouted by the insecure sites that were taken advantage of. I think people should be responsible for their own data, and if they want to be miserly, they deserve to have thiefs knocking on their door. There should be absolute, unfettered freedom of information, and until that happens, expect no respite from the assaults of the genius juvenile delinquents and code samurai scholars collectively known as hackers.

Corporate espionage is always a problem, that's no reason to take away freedom of information. New medium means a new challenge. If security isn't up to it, get new security. Every company can try to protect its data, but the ultimate trustee is the human race, and so in the end only the species entire is entitled to 'exclusive' access. No one human being, no board, no congress, has the authority to say any differently.