They Caught the Blaster Master ?

FBI to arrest teenager for creating Blaster worm


The FBI has identified a teenager as the author of a damaging virus-like infection unleashed on the internet and plans to arrest him, a US official confirmed yesterday.

The 18-year-old, whose name and hometown were 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.

The official asked that further identifying information about the teenager not be disclosed until his arrest.




Further details were expected to be disclosed by the FBI and US attorney's office in Seattle, which has been leading the investigation. A news conference was scheduled for 2030 GMT today (0630 AEST Saturday).



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

http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/08/29/1062050652666.html

 

18 years old.... Legal Age... GOOD
Let's see how he/she [if guilty] likes see lots of fluro lights and bars for a good while.

Cheers, TAS

 

Be interesting to see how it plays out. I'm not sure based on this report. A witness says they saw the teen "testing the infection" which could mean anything, not necessarily creating or launching it. But 99% of those busted for this type crime "bragged" to others about it, providing a circumstantial admission - something authorities are up-front about when first basing an arrest. Testing, experimenting or playing with it, could be an affirmative defense here. I need more before celebrating, but certainly hope they're right.

Regards, Rickster

 

This infection iwas not something created by a 18 year old at all.
This poor kid is a scapegoat.
OFF subject here...and political of nature; snipped for that reason - paul

 

Well i can understand scapegoat..but it is not over until the fat lady sings and I am sure if he did version B..he surely knew what damage it would cause..I am thinking about another animal on this one..how about copycat...

**************************
MSBlaster arrest expected Friday

Teenager suspected of authoring Net worm variant

By Bob Sullivan
MSNBC

Aug. 28 — The FBI has identified a teenager as the author of a variant of the MSBlaster worm and plans to arrest him early Friday, a U.S. official confirmed Thursday. The variant, called MSBlaster.B, is a slightly altered version of the original worm, which wreaked havoc on Internet users two weeks ago. It’s unclear if the suspect had anything to do with the original MSBlaster worm, the sources said, and identifying this suspect does not resolve the case


http://www.msnbc.com/news/958852.asp?cp1=1

*****************************
scapegoat is a typically innocent person or (minority) group that is made to bear blame for others.

Many people find a scapegoat in order to vent their aggressions/ their suppressed frustrations about their own faults.

Scapegoatism is often related to a mass hysteria in which the individual adapts to the actions and opinions of the mass - out of fear to be made the next scapegoat.
*************************

Teenage Blaster Worm Suspect Under Investigation
Fri August 29, 2003 08:58 AM ET
NEW YORK (Reuters) - A Washington state teenager suspected of making the devastating Blaster Internet worm even more potent is under investigation and his arrest is pending, U.S. law enforcement sources said on Friday.
The 18-year-old suspect already has been questioned and put under surveillance, according to a report in the Seattle Times newspaper, which said the teenager will likely be charged as an adult.

The FBI in Seattle has scheduled a press conference together with the U.S. Secret Service in Seattle at 1:30 p.m. Pacific time (4:30 p.m. EDT) on Friday to discuss their progress in the investigation.

Investigators do not suspect the unidentified teenager as the creator of the original Blaster worm, the newspaper said.

But they suspect he altered the worm into the so-called B-variant, which does more harm than the original worm that bored into computers through a weak spot in the Microsoft Windows operating system, the paper reported.

http://reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=3357860

 

thats stupit you know how many of us play with worms ,trojans and viruses here at wilders lol.

i play with a few nastys just to see if my programs actualy work

some of the security guys here dowenload huge archives to test and play with lol there called zoo's

poor kid

i knew a 12 year old that was playing with worms befor i even knew how to use a computer.


he was already doing url hacking and pirating.

as a mater of fact the little snot showed me my first porn site lol no im not kiding.

thers something most parents should know if you have a pc and your kid has one in his owen room chances are hes a little script kid or hacker

they dont just use the pc for school work lol

this kid was my x girlfrind little brother

 

Mr. Blaze,
Myself the only worms I play with, is the one I use when I go
fishing LOL.

 

is that for mr. garfiled lol

alot of guys tear up malware

sometimes is good to test your software to make sure its working well

i have go mack and system restore and norton ghost lol im not totaly fearless lol

 

You mean the fish or the worms

 

Hi all,


His name... is Jeffery Lee Parson of Minnisota and he is now in custody and has also been released pending a trial. Allthough the feds say he was not the originator of the MSBLASTER but the releaser of variant B . This worm could possibly bring him up to 10 years in federal prison. Dang... He would of been better off playing with his own worm at least thats not a crime LOL

R.I.P. Jeffery

Regards,
FireDancer

 

Let me see if I have this correct. The original news article listed the kid in Washington? How did he end up in my state of Minnesota?

So let's say a antivirus company or one of us decided to change worm code for our own testing purposes and accidently clicks on it and releases a chain reaction,does that make us evil? Does that mean we dilibertly released a worm on the world to cause maham?
I still find it hard to believe the kid purposly did it.
Minnesota huh?

con

 

I think different people are being investigated for different variants of the Blaster disaster. I could have misunderstood also though.

 

Somehow I don't find it so hard to believe he did it on purpose... Especially if something led the investigators to his doorstep.

Roughly half the crime in this country is committed by juveniles.

 

Controler makes a good point. For those skilled enough to alter and test these things, it bodes the point to not allow test platforms to go on-line until cleaned. This only applies if they can prove you knowingly interacted with the code and were not merely infected. In an accidental release, the court would argue your expertise alone proves you must have foreseen the risk while connected to the net and support a penalty of criminal negligence.

Most criminal statutes require “Mens Rea” (bad mind) or intent and “Actus Reus” (bad act). How the two inter-relate will ultimately determine his penalty, but nothing can protect him or anyone interacting with malicious code from the resulting civil liability.

Regards, Rickster

 

he is from minnisota and is being transferd to washington curtosy of the feds


FireDancer

 

Authorities arrest Minnesota teen in Internet attack
Brian Bakst, Associated Press

Published August 30, 2003 WORM30

An 18-year old from a Minneapolis suburb charged with spreading a damaging Internet infection was arrested Friday and later released under restrictions set by a federal judge.

After being charged with one count of intentionally causing damage to a protected computer, U.S. Magistrate Judge Susan Richard Nelson told Jeffrey Lee Parson not to access the Internet or any other network connection and placed him on electronic monitoring.

Parson, known online as ``teekid,'' told the judge he understood the charges against him. He didn't enter a plea during his initial court appearance. His next hearing is scheduled for Sept. 17 in Seattle, where the case was being investigated.

During the hearing, Assistant U.S. Attorney Paul Luehr told the judge that Parson's Internet worm, along with other Blaster variants, caused $5 million to $10 million worth of damage to Microsoft alone. He said at least 7,000 computers were affected by Parson's worm.


Jeffrey Lee Parson leaves a vehicle.

Bruce Bisping
Star Tribune
Parson, a 6-foot-4, 320-pound high school senior from Hopkins, spoke only in response to questions from the judge.

He wore a T-shirt that read ``Big Daddy'' on the front and ``Big and Bad'' with a grizzly bear on the back. He sported metal stud under his lip and his hair was dyed blond on top and shaved close around the sides and back.

He looked straight ahead, never turning toward his parents, Rita and Robert Parson, seated in the back row of the courtroom. His mother sighed heavily and wiped tears away from her face before the hearing. Neither she nor Parson's father would comment afterward.


Jeffrey Lee Parson

Hopkins High School Yearbook
Parson left the courtroom escorted by federal marshals, but he didn't immediately leave the building. Nelson expressed concern for his safety.

``There have been threats made against you,'' the judge told him.

Later, he left with his parents in an older model, maroon Oldsmobile Cutless. No one answered reporters' questions when they arrived at home.

Parson was told he would be assigned a public defender after telling the judge he had no income, no assets and only $3 in a savings account.


Jeffrey Lee Parson covers his face.

Bruce Bisping
Star Tribune
Investigators say they seized seven computers during their search last week. One remaining computer will be removed from the home.

Nelson warned Parson that failing to appear at future hearings would cost him $25,000 from an unsecured bond and disobeying the terms of his release would land him under immediate arrest and subject him to additional charges.

He's allowed to leave his home only for doctor visits and school, and he's not allowed to use the Internet on computers at Hopkins High School, either.

Luehr unsuccessfully requested that he be kept in custody. ``In this case, we are concerned about the economic well being of many citizens and the public at large that uses the Internet.''

Tom Heffelfinger, the U.S. attorney for Minnesota, said the case will be turned over to a grand jury to decide whether more charges will be filed. If convicted of the one count already filed, Parson could be sentenced to up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

``This kind of prosecution should be a warning shot across the bow of hackers,'' Heffelfinger said. ``We're serious about it, and we're coming after you.''

Investigators said Parson's worm allowed him to access individual computers and people's personal communications and finances. It wasn't immediately clear how he might have used that information.

Parson had admitted during an interview with the FBI and Secret Service agents to modifying the original ``Blaster'' infection and creating a version known by a variety of different names, including ``Blaster.B.,'' court papers said.

The seven computers seized by FBI and Secret Service agents Aug. 19 at his home were still being analyzed. Parson told the FBI he built into his version of the worm a method for reconnecting to victim computers later.

Parson apparently took few steps to disguise his identity. As a byproduct of each infection, every victim's computer sent signals back to the ``t33kid.com'' Web site that Parson had registered in his own name, listing his home address in Minnesota. The computer bug blamed on Parson also included an infecting file called ``teekids.exe'' that experts quickly associated with Parson's Web site: Hackers routinely substitute ``3'' for the letter ``e'' in their online aliases.

By midday Friday, hours after Parson's arrest, professional virus-hunters across the Internet were slapping their foreheads in frustration that nobody figured out the clues earlier.

``It's kind of embarrassingly simple,'' said Nick Fitzgerald of New Zealand, a widely recognized expert and contributing editor to the Virus Bulletin newsletter. ``I guess we should praise the Lord for stupid people, right?''

The Web site, which was operated from computers physically in San Diego, appeared Friday not to have any content on it but previously contained software code for at least one virus and a listing of the most-damaging viruses circulating on the Internet.

The case was being handled from Seattle because the infection affected software sold by Microsoft Corp., based in nearby Redmond, Wash.

U.S. Attorney John McKay from Washington praised the work of federal agents and Microsoft, saying their collaboration helped quickly track the source of the worm.

McKay would not elaborate on the case beyond the allegations outlined in the charges against Parson, but said, ``Is he dangerous? Yes, he's dangerous. ... There is serious harm to individuals, businesses, Microsoft Corp. being only one of them.''

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 a ``teekids.''

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 these types of infections.

---


AP Technology Writer Ted Bridis contributed to this story from Washington.

http://www.startribune.com/stories/789/4068796.html


Photos at the above link

more info here...

http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,7815757~root=security,1~mode=flat~start=60

 

OMFG oh hell no they didnt

did they just make a bold statement algaints hackers

that was the stupitest thing to do

theres more hackers and script kiddies out there then there is security programers try a hundred for every security programer

that was stupit now where all s#$%$#

what were they smokeing they just basicly wage cyber war

the goverment cant win there all old guys that arnt even cyber saby

this is going to get ugly really fast

who you think will survive on the net here at wilders the longest lol

if i were you newbys id start buying some major security programs lol and even that might not save you

 

Is there many outreach programs online that would be alluring you young people? Directed by respectable people that young people would look up to?

The discription of the young 18 year old sounds like every other kid on the block these days. Tattos and body percings are the hip thing to
do now days for young and old. I am sure the kid would of had a tatoo if he could have afforded one.
Hopkins is a nice community, not far from me.

I also need to go re-read the site policy. I was thinking almost anything goes here on the ten forward thread.