Posted on 08/29/2003 1:35:11 AM PDT by HAL9000
WASHINGTON - U.S. cyber investigators have identified a teenager as one author of a damaging virus-like infection unleashed weeks ago on the Internet and plan to arrest him early Friday, a U.S. official confirmed.
The 18-year-old was accused of writing a version of the damaging "Blaster" computer infection that spread quickly across the Internet, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. The official asked that further identifying information about the teenager not be disclosed until the arrest.
Further details were expected to be disclosed Friday by the FBI and U.S. attorney's office in Seattle, which has been leading the investigation.
A spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office there, John Hartingh, said there had been "no arrest made in this matter yet." He declined to comment further.
A witness reportedly saw the teen testing the infection and called authorities, the official said.
Collectively, different versions of the virus-like worm, alternately called "LovSan" or "Blaster," snarled corporate networks worldwide, forcing Maryland's motor vehicle agency to close for one day. The infection inundated networks and frustrated home users.
Symantec Corp., a leading antivirus vendor, said the worm and its variants infected more than 500,000 computers worldwide. Experts consider it one of the worst outbreaks this year.
The "Blaster.B" version of the infection, which began spreading Aug. 13, was remarkably similar to the original Blaster worm that first struck two days earlier; experts said the author made few changes, renaming the infecting-file from "msblast" to an anatomical reference.
All the Blaster virus variants took advantage of a flaw in Microsoft Corp.'s flagship Windows software. Government and industry experts had anticipated such an outbreak since July 16, when Microsoft acknowledged the software problem, which affects Windows technology used to share data files across computer networks.
The infection was quickly dubbed "LovSan" because of a love note left behind on vulnerable computers: "I just want to say LOVE YOU SAN!" Researchers also discovered another message hidden inside the infection that appeared to taunt Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates: "billy gates why do you make this possible? Stop making money and fix your software!"
Infected computers were programmed to automatically launch an attack on a Web site operated by Microsoft, which the software maker easily blunted. The site, windowsupdate.com, is used to deliver repairing software patches to Microsoft customers to prevent against these types of infections.
There needs to be a strong signal (prison time - HARD prison time - and lots of it) sent to these criminals (and that is just what they are) who infringe on our liberties of using the internet.
Another story of the same criminal:
By TED BRIDIS
The Associated Press
Thursday, August 28, 2003; 11:37 PM
WASHINGTON - The FBI has identified a teenager as the author of a damaging virus-like infection unleashed on the Internet and plans to arrest him early Friday, a U.S. official confirmed Thursday.
The 18-year-old, whose name and hometown was not immediately available, was accused of writing one version of the damaging "Blaster" infection, which spread quickly across the Internet weeks ago, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The official asked that further identifying information about the teenager not be disclosed until his arrest.
Further details were expected to be disclosed Friday by the FBI and U.S. attorney's office in Seattle, which has been leading the investigation. A news conference was scheduled for 4:30 p.m. EDT.
A spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office there, John Hartingh, said there had been "no arrest made in this matter yet." He declined to comment further.
A witness reportedly saw the teen testing the infection and called authorities, the official said.
Collectively, different versions of the virus-like worm, alternately called "LovSan" or "Blaster," snarled corporate networks worldwide, forcing Maryland's motor vehicle agency to close for one day. The infection inundated networks and frustrated home users.
Symantec Corp., a leading antivirus vendor, said the worm and its variants infected more than 500,000 computers worldwide. Experts consider it one of the worst outbreaks this year.
The "Blaster.B" version of the infection, which began spreading Aug. 13, was remarkably similar to the original Blaster worm that struck two days earlier; experts said its author made few changes, including renaming the infecting-file from "msblast" to an anatomical reference.
All the Blaster variants took advantage of a flaw in Microsoft Corp.'s flagship Windows software. Government and industry experts had anticipated such an outbreak since July 16, when Microsoft acknowledged the flaw, which affects Windows technology used to share data files across computer networks.
The infection was quickly dubbed "LovSan" because of a love note left behind on vulnerable computers: "I just want to say LOVE YOU SAN!" Researchers also discovered another message hidden inside the infection that appeared to taunt Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates: "billy gates why do you make this possible? Stop making money and fix your software!"
Infected computers were programmed to automatically launch an attack on a Web site operated by Microsoft, which the software maker easily blunted. The site, windowsupdate.com, is used to deliver repairing software patches to Microsoft customers to prevent against these types of infections.
Personally I'd ensure that he requires a straw at meal time from here on...
Cleaning airport toilets, I hope.
Sadly, you have identified the problem with these viruses … their authors are rewarded.
You'll still get emails from infected machines but you won't become infected yourself. Click each one off? I just shift select 'em, then delete 'em all at once. If I were getting 1200 a day I think I would change my email address, notify my loved ones and carry on.
This a-hole will be rich and our power grid and our bills will go up because these cyber sphyncters think they are soooo smart.
May he rot in hell.
Too Bad.
Think about this for a minute. It's incredibly easy for non-talented vandals to wreak millions of dollars in economic damage because Microsoft's software is poorly designed. This software is used by most of the world's businesses to conduct commerce and manage infrastructure. This fact hasn't been lost on terrorists and hostile nation-states like China.
http://securityresponse.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/w32.blaster.e.worm.html
You are probably seeing one of the variants of SoBig:
http://securityresponse.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/w32.sobig.f@mm.html
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