Author of Blaster worm caught!

Stravo · Post by **Stravo** » 2003-08-29 11:09am

Teen arrested in Internet 'Blaster' attack
Friday, August 29, 2003 Posted: 10:50 AM EDT (1450 GMT)

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Cyber investigators on Friday arrested a teenager suspected of authoring a damaging virus-like infection unleashed weeks ago on the Internet, U.S. officials said.

The unidentified 18-year-old was expected to appear before a federal magistrate in St. Paul, Minnesota around noon and then be transferred to Seattle to face charges.

He is accused of writing a version of the damaging "Blaster" computer infection that spread quickly across the Internet, a U.S. official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

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 witness reportedly saw the teen testing the infection and called authorities, the official said.

Snarling traffic
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 August 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.

Exploiting Microsoft flaw
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.

Glocksman · Post by **Glocksman** » 2003-08-29 11:11am

If he's guilty, a 10 year sentence in a 'pound me in the ass' Federal pen would be appropriate.

Post by **Sea Skimmer** » 2003-08-29 11:21am

He is accused of writing a version of the damaging "Blaster" computer infection

Well if he is only behind one variant then perhaps this will lead to the capture of whoever behind the rest of them. Or maybe not, it could be a case of one person simply building on the work of another without knowing them.

Xenophobe3691 · Post by **Xenophobe3691** » 2003-08-29 11:37am

Yeah...fuck him. I don't understand why any kid would wish to cause such destruction, when blowing stuff up is so much easier to do...

Wicked Pilot · Post by **Wicked Pilot** » 2003-08-29 04:03pm

Vorlon1701 wrote:I don't understand why any kid would wish to cause such destruction, when blowing stuff up is so much easier to do...

That's what happens when you can't even get laid by a Catholic priest.

MKSheppard · Post by **MKSheppard** » 2003-08-29 04:13pm

Lock him up and throw the key away

beyond hope · Post by **beyond hope** » 2003-08-29 10:36pm

Also up here on Yahoo. Drudge Report has the kid's picture... he's 6'4" and 320 pounds, and his head bears this uncanny resemblence to a bowling ball. From the story, it sounds like he just came up with derivatives of the original rather than writing the first version.[/url]

neoolong · Post by **neoolong** » 2003-08-29 11:27pm

Probably going to be made some guy's man-bitch in jail. If he isn't let off easy.

HemlockGrey · Post by **HemlockGrey** » 2003-08-29 11:35pm

You know, I don't think they throw script kiddies in with hardened criminals. Think 'minimum security prison'.

neoolong · Post by **neoolong** » 2003-08-29 11:39pm

HemlockGrey wrote:You know, I don't think they throw script kiddies in with hardened criminals. Think 'minimum security prison'.

Maybe they should. That'd learn 'em.

Post by **Sea Skimmer** » 2003-08-30 12:01am

HemlockGrey wrote:You know, I don't think they throw script kiddies in with hardened criminals. Think 'minimum security prison'.

These worms caused billions in damages, my sympathy meter is reading nil.

Crayz9000 · Post by **Crayz9000** » 2003-08-30 12:14am

I think being a part of a road gang would be wonderful for that lardass.

Post by **The Yosemite Bear** » 2003-08-30 01:04am

I support that one....

Post by **AdmiralKanos** » 2003-08-30 07:24pm

Sea Skimmer wrote:
HemlockGrey wrote:You know, I don't think they throw script kiddies in with hardened criminals. Think 'minimum security prison'.
These worms caused billions in damages, my sympathy meter is reading nil.

I don't feel any sympathy either, but from a legal standpoint it is ridiculous to hold him responsible for the extent of the damage. If it were a civil case, most of the damage would be found to be the responsibility of the victims, for "failure to mitigate" (the legal term in tort cases for the victim causing most of the damage by failing to take proper precautions). For example, if you set fire to a bar but it turns out that the bar was in violation of fire codes by having no sprinkler system, the plaintiff cannot hold you responsible for 100% of the damages because he should have had his fire system working.

In this case, the virus only affected computer users and corporate networks that were afflicted with a case of depraved incompetence (sorry if that offends anyone that was hit by the virus, but it's a fact; I never get hit with these things because I know what I'm doing).

Like it or not, this is mere cyber-vandalism more than anything else (I know the word "terrorism" gets thrown around a lot, but it's fucking shameful to equate clogged E-mail systems and crashing computers with people dying).

Crayz9000 · Post by **Crayz9000** » 2003-08-30 07:32pm

AdmiralKanos wrote:(sorry if that offends anyone that was hit by the virus, but it's a fact; I never get hit with these things because I know what I'm doing)

Hell, I don't always know what I'm doing, but I know enough to keep my home network working smoothly. Only one computer has ever been infected unintentionally, and that was a Windows 98 box running Outlook Express as its mail client. That was also well over a year ago.

The reason it got infected? My dad had failed to update Norton Antivirus for a while (this being an older version for which the auto-update service had expired, necessitating manual updates), while at the same time thinking that he had to manually delete all his "junk" Hotmail messages. Oops.

Post by **Sea Skimmer** » 2003-08-30 08:22pm

AdmiralKanos wrote:For example, if you set fire to a bar but it turns out that the bar was in violation of fire codes by having no sprinkler system, the plaintiff cannot hold you responsible for 100% of the damages because he should have had his fire system working.

In this case, the virus only affected computer users and corporate networks that were afflicted with a case of depraved incompetence (sorry if that offends anyone that was hit by the virus, but it's a fact; I never get hit with these things because I know what I'm doing).

I fail to see why you shouldn't be held fully responsible for burning down a bar if it was arson. This worm wasn't an accident and was intended to cause damage. If I shot a cop on the chest and he only dies because he forget his Kevlar vest that day, he was incompetent as well, but I'm sure as fuck not getting my charges or sentence reduced.

beyond hope · Post by **beyond hope** » 2003-08-30 08:41pm

How about sentancing him to 10 years hard labor plugging holes in Microsoft's code?

Post by **AdmiralKanos** » 2003-08-30 08:42pm

Sea Skimmer wrote: I fail to see why you shouldn't be held fully responsible for burning down a bar if it was arson. This worm wasn't an accident and was intended to cause damage. If I shot a cop on the chest and he only dies because he forget his Kevlar vest that day, he was incompetent as well, but I'm sure as fuck not getting my charges or sentence reduced.

That's because you obviously intended to kill him. There is no way this kid intended or expected to cause $3.5 billion in damage. Besides, murder is a sort of on/off proposition. Even if the cop was found 50% liable for his own death, it's not like a financial damage where the blame can be apportioned in that manner.

MKSheppard · Post by **MKSheppard** » 2003-08-30 08:54pm

Screw the kid. My yahoo inbox has been filling up with approximately
2 megs of blaster/sobig spam a day, and making me go over my limit,
and making it possible for me to miss an important message.

So Fuck him.

Post by **AdmiralKanos** » 2003-08-30 08:57pm

MKSheppard wrote:Screw the kid. My yahoo inbox has been filling up with approximately 2 megs of blaster/sobig spam a day, and making me go over my limit, and making it possible for me to miss an important message.

So Fuck him.

Ha! It's possible to filter all StarDestroyer.Net E-accounts so that they nuke sobig/blaster spam and delete it before it reaches your mailbox.

MKSheppard · Post by **MKSheppard** » 2003-08-30 09:00pm

AdmiralKanos wrote: Ha! It's possible to filter all StarDestroyer.Net E-accounts so that they nuke sobig/blaster spam and delete it before it reaches your mailbox.

Too much work and besides, the free yahoo account allows me to give
away my email address on boards like this one without having my real
address fill up with spam spam spam

Post by **Sea Skimmer** » 2003-08-30 09:12pm

MKSheppard wrote:Screw the kid. My yahoo inbox has been filling up with approximately
2 megs of blaster/sobig spam a day, and making me go over my limit,
and making it possible for me to miss an important message.

So Fuck him.

Haha, my Hotmail account is currently getting record low Spam levels.

There is no way this kid intended or expected to cause $3.5 billion in damage. Besides, murder is a sort of on/off proposition. Even if the cop was found 50% liable for his own death, it's not like a financial damage where the blame can be apportioned in that manner.

He certainly expected to do some damage, why the hell else would he be modifying and then release a worm. Yeah maybe he didn't expect to cause billions but going back to arson, if the fire spreads to other buildings it is still your fault. he caused billions in damages, he pays for doing it. Though I'm not sure if current laws on the matter take the severity into account. They probably ought to.

kojikun · Post by **kojikun** » 2003-08-30 09:15pm

shep, i get no spam and i use yahoo mail. ::points and laughs::

Durandal · Post by **Durandal** » 2003-08-30 10:04pm

An appropriate sentence would be tying him up somewhere in Silicon Valley and letting every sysadmin and network admin in the world take turns beating the stupid out of him.

Howedar · Post by **Howedar** » 2003-08-31 12:02am

Sea Skimmer wrote: Haha, my Hotmail account is currently getting record low Spam levels.

So THATS why I'm not getting spam!

Never put two and two together on this one.