Teenage Blaster Worm Suspect Arrested
 

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http://wwwi.reuters.com/images/2003-...BLASTER-DC.jpg
Don't y'all feel much safer now?
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SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - The FBI on Friday arrested a teenager who admitted making a copycat version of the Blaster Internet worm, even as experts combed over data in the hunt for the creator of the virus that devastated computers all over the world.

Jeffrey Lee Parson, 18, of Hopkins, Minnesota, a middle- class suburb west of Minneapolis, was arrested at home on one count of intentionally causing or attempting to cause damage to a computer. The arrest was the result of a joint investigation by the U.S. Secret Service and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Parson, described in the complaint as being 6-feet-4-inches tall and weighing 320 pounds, sported a bleached blond mop of hair atop a closely-cropped fringe of brown hair. He wore a faded gray T-shirt with "Big Daddy" spelled out on the front, as well as cargo shorts and high-top sneakers.

At an initial hearing in St. Paul, Minnesota, U.S. Magistrate Judge Susan Nelson ordered Parson to be held under house arrest, though he can leave to attend high school and medical appointments.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Paul Luehr had argued for keeping Parson in jail, based on the "grievous and substantial" harm he had caused computer users.

The judge forbade him from using the Internet, surfing the World Wide Web or using instant messaging and instant relay chat. She also told Parson there had been threats made against him and she was concerned for his safety.

The suspect had previously admitted to law enforcement officials that he created a variant of the worm, according to a complaint filed in the Western District of Washington state. Parson's next court hearing will be Sept. 17 in Seattle.

MODIFIED BLASTER

Parson admitted modifying Blaster and creating a variant known by different names, including "W32/Lovesan.worm.b" and admitted he renamed the original code, dubbed "MSBlast.exe," "teekids.exe" after his online alias, the complaint said.

Parson also said he included a hidden Trojan horse program called "Lithium" in the worm, leaving a back door so he could reconnect remotely to the infected computers later.

FBI agents interviewed Parson when they searched his home on Aug. 19 and seized seven computers.

Blaster and its variants are self-replicating Internet worms that bore into machines using Microsoft Corp.'s Windows operating system through a security hole, harnessing them to launch concerted data attacks via the Internet on a Microsoft technical service Web site.

At least 7,000 "drone" computers tried to attack the Microsoft Web site, the complaint said. Microsoft thwarted the attacks by disconnecting the Web address from the Internet.

Blaster is believed to have infected hundreds of thousands of computers worldwide since it was released on Aug. 11.

The Internet addresses of infected computers were sent to the t33kid.com Web site. That site was traced back to Parson through Brian Davis, of Watauga, Texas, who leased Web hosting services to Parson, according to the complaint.

Davis told officials he knew "teekid" had performed Internet attacks and written various Internet worms, the complaint said.

The t33kid.com site is registered to Parson at an address in Hopkins, Minnesota. A phone number at that address is registered to R. Parson. A woman who answered the telephone there declined to comment.

The alias also appears to have been used to deface the Web site of the Minnesota Government Finance Owners Association, and there are messages from "Teekid" on message boards related to trojans -- small programs that hackers plant on computers.

(Additional reporting by Eric Auchard in New York, Bernhard
Warner in London, Deborah Charles in Washington, D.C., Daniel Sorid in San Francisco, and Andy Stern in Chicago)

Holy crap! Chris Farley spread the blaster virus from beyond the grave?!?

I hope he's anally raped on a daily basis in his prison cell.

---you called it BOCO---they need to put him in "protective custody" until his trial, and give him a great big ugly fucker who needs a new girl friend...

Dear god he looks about ready to eat me. Im scarred :(

Has there ever been an attractive hacker? :p.

wasted kid. too bad.

Well, he got what he deserved.

Silly Goon cost our company thousands of dollars in lost production.... I hope he gets his .... and good

I think there should be some sort of clause in the law that says that if you don't update your computer after a year and a half, you deserve to get a virus written after that long and it's pointless to prosecute the writer of the virus.

but he didn't actually make the thing, he just took the original and changed it (allegedly of course, you always gotta add allegedly). Bring me a news bulliten when they find the actual person, this is small potatas.

EDIT: And getting hit by something that was fixed a month ago is kinda embarasing isn't it? Especially for companies, maybe they just want someone to blame.

lol looks like the ugliest baldness pattern ever!

I'm not interested in his real name, what's his handle!!?

wow.
i´ve never imagined guys like this getting caught.
i guess i just imagined these guys as being one or two steps in front of the establishment. but i see that view is wrong.

are many virus writers caught?? or is this unusual??

I'm not interested in his real name, what's his handle!!?
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he renamed the original code, dubbed "MSBlast.exe," "teekids.exe" after his online alias, the complaint said.

I agree with both these statements.

While I agree this person needs to e punished, he doesn't deserve the 10+ years in prison that hacking crimes like this tend to result in. Give him a year in prison, take away his right to a computer and similar technologies for 5 years, but 10 years with violent thiefs, rapists, and killers is not what this person deserves.

Heck, as one of my friends said to me - who is incidentally pretty anti-hacker himself - being as much of a loser this guy seems to be, that's almost punishment enough :lol:

When they find the person who wrote the original, that'll be a much more important accomplishment. Unfortunately this guy - while he only made a small variation - is going to end up getting the blame for the entire thing.

This kid is an absolute MORON, and though I doubt he is intellectually superior to a chimp, I hope that he gets a stiff jail sentence until he is no longer able to breed.

Well.. If I learn how to hack.. there could be one in a year or so... :D


Yeah I hope this guy really gets it..

As much as I'd like to think of something.. Boco.. You thought of a good one ;)

What a tosser, burn script kiddie burn!

He had SEVEN computers???? Bet he will have such a full life when he's sentenced and never allowed to touch another computer for years. hahah...Loser

wow...what a retard...all that good knowledge gone to shit...

maybe he is a lost soul trying to look for attention. But then again resorting to fucking up millions of PCs worldwide isn't really a great way to get on people's good side.

If my hair looked like that at age 18 I would want revenge on the world too.

Ok, so he is a really smart loser......might be a good fit for the FBI Internet Crimes unit.....after his ass gets a virus of it's own while he spends a little time in prison......