FBI Says Teen Put Worm on Internet (More info in)

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1802&ncid=1802&e=2&u=/washpost/20030830/ts_washpost/a2306_2003aug29

FBI (news - web sites) agents arrested Jeffrey Lee Parson, an 18-year-old high school senior, early yesterday at the home he shares with his parents in Hopkins, Minn. The U.S. attorney's office in Seattle, which is leading the case, charged Parson with intentionally damaging thousands of computers owned by Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft Corp., other businesses and individuals.

<snip>

Parson did little to cover his tracks, according to the criminal complaint. He appears to have boasted of unleashing viruses. According to a version of his Web site, recorded by the Internet search engine Google, Parson claimed to have created a worm called "p2p.teekid.c" that was spread by people using popular services such as Kazaa and iMesh, which are used by millions of people to share songs, video and movie files. Parson used the pseudonym "Teekid" online, according to prosecutors. The site contained no references to Blaster, however.


Prosecutors alleged that Parson modified the existing Blaster virus, which began circulating on the Internet on Aug. 11, and unleashed his own, more insidious version known as Blaster.B, among other names. Computer security experts suggested yesterday that Parson probably downloaded the original worm and simply added a bit more code.

<snip>

"With this arrest we want to deliver a message to cyber criminals here and around the world that the Department of Justice (news - web sites) takes these crimes seriously," U.S. Attorney John McKay said at a news conference in Seattle. Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge issued a statement praising the arrest.


McKay said his office is still trying to find the author of the original Blaster.
<snip>

Sounds as if this high school kid (really BIG kid) aimed an existing virus at MicroSoft.

IMHO, making a Mitnick type example out of this kid is like trying to stop marijuana traffic by busting users. M$ has some blame here as well. It would be as if you built a car that died everytime you drove over a pot hole and you blamed the people who use the street rather than your car.

AND b4 you flame me on this, I just want to ask that you give the kid the sympathy you would a herd of rampaging mink.

:evilgrin:

[VolcanoJen]

1. Dupe and Consolidation Interests... locking

Billy_Pilgrim, for the sake of continuity and leanness, let's keep our discussions about Jeffrey Parson consolidated inside your original LBN thread on this subject, which can be found here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=88711

Thanks!
VolcanoJen
DU Moderator