Arrest Coming Today in Internet Attack - Scratch a Blaster

[Richard King]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A62735-2003Aug29?language=printer

What should his penalty be?

[cooper]

Life.

[mainedish]

Why do they do this? Why do they tell the world about the arrest before they do it? How stupid is that!!

[Bogy]

Why do they do this? Why do they tell the world about the arrest before they do it? How stupid is that!!Investigators who want to impress reporters.

[Richard King]

A 19 year old Minnesota native. This was not a very Minnesota nice thing to do. I would think that at a minimum significant jail time is awaiting this person.

[Bogy]

He should just have to fix everybody's computer.

[Richard King]

Mine first? :lol:

[PSB]

They should make him stay here in MN. for the winter, every winter, forever! Ok maybe thats a wee bit too much.

[dtcarson]

Plus lots and lots of civil suits from all the companies who spent hundreds of manhours catching/repairing the damage, and lost lots of workhours due to it.
These virus writers are just a waste of oxygen, imho. Originally hackers did stuff to see if they could do it, but didn't cause harm, or at least 'passive' harm [phone phreaks, etc.] That's still wrong, but these punks who have to have their name across millions of computers are just vandals on a galactic scale. Not to mention the ones who create damaging, potentially damaging, or thieving programs, like this guy--prison's too good for them.

[Richard King]

They should make him stay here in MN. for the winter, every winter, forever! Ok maybe thats a wee bit too much.As an escapee, I can say for certain that that would be cruel and unusual punishment. :D

[Bogy]

As an escapee, I can say for certain that that would be cruel and unusual punishment. :DThey could make him move to Florida and live in a retirement community.

[Richard King]

They could make him move to Florida and live in a retirement community.Only for the Winter?

[lastmanstanding]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A62735-2003Aug29?language=printer

What should his penalty be?

They surely need to make a big example of this kid. I really think that he had no idea how big BLASTER would become, or he would have traveled to another town and uploaded the thing via some public kiosk or such. The perp in the I LOVE YOU virus claimed he sent it by mistake, and he might have. The bug could have infected his own machine and sent itself out. But that is no excuse. Experts estimate Blaster's damages to be well north of $30M USD. That kid will have to mow a lot of lawns to pay that off.

As for what penalty, how about ten years hanging by his nipples in front of a webcam? There might be enough freaks out there who would pay a monthly subscription to offset the cost of the damages. Since the punishment is clearly more sick than it is cruel and unusual, it might stand up in court. Just have to find the right judge.

LMS

[Bogy]

Only for the Winter?NO, all year long. And he has to drive them wherever they want to go.

[Mark Holtz]

This has been a bad, bad month for viruses and worms. First, we had the Mimail virus which had us sending a mass e-mail to our subscribers that "This wasn't from us."

Then, the Blaster worm which exploited an vulnerability in 2000/XP. I hoped that I didn't have to call in a second tech for that Saturday.

But, right now, if I want to strangle the writer of the Blaster virus, I have some piano wire for the creator of the Sobig virus--something that I only wished on one other person.

Needless to say, our entire department is stressed out.

[mainedish]

Did you see the size of this kid? Send him to Maine and I will have him run 5 miles with me everyday. This fat flab needs help.

[lastmanstanding]

Needless to say, our entire department is stressed out.

Z'loth,

So far these viruses have been from kids with too much time on their hands. Do you think it possible to write something really nasty, that has enough built in intelligence to change itself to avoid the virus checkers? A BLASTER with a year long time delay would have been a mess. Imagine how far it would have spread before anyone realized that it was around.

Anyway, what do you think?

LMS

[John Corn]

He has a promising future as a high priced network security consultant. :D

6'4" 320? He should be playing football not sitting in front of a computer.

A year? No, I want to see the guy's life ruined, they should put him 10 years into some sort of labor camp. There's nothing nerds hate more than manual labor.


Why should one person pay for Microsoft's mistake?

This sort of thing should not have been possible in the first place. MICROSOFT should be paying through the nose for this one as well.

[dtcarson]

He has a promising future as a high priced network security consultant. :D

6'4" 320? He should be playing football not sitting in front of a computer.

A year? No, I want to see the guy's life ruined, they should put him 10 years into some sort of labor camp. There's nothing nerds hate more than manual labor.


Why should one person pay for Microsoft's mistake?

This sort of thing should not have been possible in the first place. MICROSOFT should be paying through the nose for this one as well.

Isn't Kevin Mitnick now making millions, or least thousands, telling companies how to protect against people like him?

And I was with you till the last two sentences....Microsoft did release updates, did notify the press, and worked with investigators to find the guy. Attempting to cover for this sleazoid by saying it's Microsoft's fault is like saying The bank wouldn't have been robbed if it didn't have a lot of money, and gets us back to the blame-the-victim game. MS certainly isn't the only victim, or even the main victim, but they were victimized.
Maybe a better example is, should Smith and Wesson be held accountable for one of their guns used in a murder? Since they didn't apply the No-Kill-People patch on their hardware, they should pay too. I don't agree with that.