Teen gets 18 months in prison for worm

ZDNet ^ | January 28, 2005 | Dawn Kawamoto

[holymoly]

A federal judge on Friday sentenced a 19-year-old Minnesota man to 18 months in prison for unleashing a variant of the MSBlast worm.

Jeffrey Lee Parson, 19, of Minnesota was ordered to serve his time in a minimum security prison and participate in 10 months of community service.

FBI agents arrested Parson at his home in Hopkins, Minn., in August 2003, just two weeks after his "MSBlast.B" variant began to tunnel into Microsoft Windows-based computers. His variant of the worm infected approximately 48,000 computers that had not yet applied an earlier released patch.

Parson pleaded guilty last summer in a Seattle U.S. District Court to damaging federal government computers with MSBlast.B. At the time of his plea, he faced a possible prison sentence of 10 years and a $250,000 fine.

The author of the original version of the MSBlast worm has yet to be caught.

[holymoly]

IMO The sentence should have been harsher, and included a life-time ban on using a computer (other than perhaps a Commodore VIC-20).

[Servant of the 9]

His community service should be to go personally to every person whose computer was infected, get down on his knees and beg forgiveness.

So9

[Servant of the 9]

Is his hair cut into a mullet and then waved and bleached?

He looks like a Jerry Springer guest.

SO9

[drc43]

Well, this is a small start.

I think the stocks or pillary or public flogging should be minimum part of any sentence

[drc43]

Oh, and some form of financial restitution.

[Fiddlstix]

He looks like a Jerry Springer guest.

Give it a little time. He will be.

[BlessedBeGod]

Wow, that really sends a message. 18 whole months. Woohoo! < /sarcasm >

Maybe it should have been a number of years at hard labor.

[Bring Back Old Sparky]

Hey! My first computer was a VIC! Pick on something else! :O)

I hope this young man-child finds a new boyfriend in prison.

[holymoly]

Here's another shot of the little genius:

[Tax-chick]

I hope this young man-child finds a new boyfriend in prison.

That's evil. He didn't fly an airplane into an office building or rape a baby; he just distributed a computer virus.

[holymoly]

Hey! My first computer was a VIC! Pick on something else! :O)

So was mine. My apologies, I should have said "Trash 80". ;)

[Dacus943]

"judge took pity on the teen, saying his neglectful parents were to blame for the psychological troubles that led to his actions"

Then JAIL the Neglectful Parents also!!!

[camas]

yes, that is how i feel.

[yooling]

Acute lead poisoning would be acceptable! IMHO

[gjpino]

Big daddy?

[LasVegasMac]

Then JAIL the Neglectful Parents also!!!

If you let your child, say for example, stay out until all hours, kid gets in trouble with the law, etc., I agree - the parents are also responsible.

But if little Johnny is at home coding and unleashing viruses, how would the average Mom or Dad know?

LVM

[Bring Back Old Sparky]

Thats okay. Never had a Trash 80. I kept the VIC for longer than I should have. When my nieces were young, they loved to play Mole Attack. (And it is really difficult to give a ROM cartridge a virus!)

[ishabibble]

Hang him. Nothing less. I'm serious and very angry because this little miscreant caused me no end of time and trouble, never mind the money spent fixing his "worm".

Domestic terrorism in the form of one fat deluded geek.

OOPS, Hanging's too good for him!

[CGTRWK]

If someone went across the country, physically entered 48,000 homes and businesses and intentionally disabled tens of millions of dollars of computer equipment with a sledgehammer, we would lock them up and throw away the key.

This man did exactly the same thing remotely, and he is getting a slap on the wrist.

I think a good sentence would be horsewhipping on the courthouse steps followed by spending all his weekends for the next 10 years cleaning virii off the computers of the computer illiterate as a public service.

[henderson field]

As community service, he should go to each and every computer affected and fix it.