Blaster Writer Caught

Henry V .009 writes "The FBI will be arresting an 18 year-old in connection with MS Blaster, reports The Washington Post." According to the article, the teen was witnessed testing the worm, and then turned in by a bystander. It's also worth noting that this is merely one of the Blaster variations. Hope whoever it was had fun, because a world of pain is waiting in store now.

I doubt it.

[Anonymous Coward]

He'll get hired by IBM in 8 months to work on internet security.

Re:A witness turned him in?!?

[joonasl]

How on Earth do you witness somebody writing a virus?

Maybe they were following the XP-methodology [extremeprogramming.org] and were pair programming [extremeprogramming.org]?

Will be arresting...

[earthloop]

The FBI will be arresting an 18 year-old

Coder: Huh? They are coming for me? I'd better get moving before they get here.

Lucky Bastard

[EvilTwinSkippy]

Lucky the authorities got to him first that is. Well they say there are more virus authors out there. Hopefully all that dental equipment I bought on Ebay will be put to good use.

Right now, the kid is reading /.

[Anonymous Coward]

They're planning to do WHAT Friday morning?!?!?

Re:I doubt it.

[Goldberg's Pants]

Or SCO will report that he used their proprietary code to do it, ergo everyone infected with the virus will now be sued by SCO for illegally using their code.

Re:A witness turned him in?!?

[beacher]

This sounds like the Penis variant that came out shortly afterwards. The kid's a hack.. he's not the original author. It's funny. He just rode someone's coattails for fun and now he's going to do some time and have to worry about who's going to ride his coattails.

Re:A witness turned him in?!?

[phagstrom]

All virus/worm/trojan writers use MovieOS where stuff like "Assembling Virus" and "Testing Virus" are written to the screen in blinking fonts.

Didn't you ever see Swordfish? ;-)

relevant haiku

[deathcow]

my progeny worm
set loose to exploit your holes
mine left for inmates

Re:If

[jheinen]

Didn't download the patch huh?

His defense...

[r00zky]

...I got a virus in my computer and... and... it wrote another itself!

Just remember this [slashdot.org]

Re:He did not write MS blaster

[Anonymous Coward]

Please sir, don't call 18 year olds 'kid'. In federal ass fucking prison he'd simply be known as 'bitch'.

no imagenation...

[schappim]

Anyone who's imagenation peaks at nameing one of the most significant viruses of out time as 'MS Blaster' deserves to get caught!

Whoa. Call the NSA. Call the Guiness Book of Rec's

[jabbadabbadoo]

The worlds most intelligent bystander has just been identified.

Re:A witness turned him in?!?

[rylin]

and SCO issuing another press release.

Err?
No.

They're talking about one person, not fifty monkeys dressed as lawyers

Symantec........

[tankdilla]

...and the rest of the (anti)virus companies should be sending this guy care packages or something to help this him out. If not for him and other virus writers (i.e. the ones who really wrote the virus), all those companies would be out of business. Business for them has been booming because of all the virus activity, the kid should at least get a free carton of cigarettes before he's carted off to jail.

will be arresting

[MikeHunt69]

The FBI will be arresting someone.. Hm. I wonder if thats Kevin Mitnick/Guantanamo Bay-style "will be arresting" or they really will arrest him so he can have a proper trial.

Re:A witness turned him in?!?

[Anonymous Coward]

If they do throw hin in jail, I don't suspect he'll be a virgin for much longer.

Re:Seriously? Arrest Microsoft, Inc.

[Anonymous Coward]

At least with Typhoid Mary, she wasn't really aware of all the damage she was doing up until the end. Microsoft has known they've had odius security problems for a long time but were so determined to cram their products down everyone's throats, that it didn't matter that vermin ,rotten food, petri dishes, eggshells and other garbage was in the mix.

Typhoid Bill
Microsoft Back Typhoid
Microsoft Typhoid
Gate's Syndrome
Typhoid Bob
Microsoft Typhoid Express
Microsoft Virus Express
Microsoft Pestule Express
Microsoft Plague Express
Microsoft Pandemic Express
Windows XP Plague Island Edition
Northwest Nile Syndrome
Blood Letting Pack
Malaria Coast Explorer
Keep your Hands From Your Face Explorer

And everyone's favorite:

Internet Exploder

Any chance ...

[weileong]

Any chance he goes around calling himself "Zero Cool"?

Re:A witness turned him in?!?

[Anonymous Coward]

maybe spreading another kind of virus

Re:Seriously? Arrest Microsoft, Inc.

[commodoresloat]

Exactly how do you put a fictitious legal entity in Jail?

Build a fence around the Microsoft Campus. The Great Wall of Redmond.

Re: He did not write MS blaster

[Black Parrot]

> The kid actually did not write the MSBlaster worm, he modified it to make it more potent and released it.

Well, that's OK then.

Cryptic message

[Anonymous Coward]

Researchers also discovered another message hidden inside the infection that appeared (emphasis added) to taunt Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates: "billy gates why do you make this possible? Stop making money and fix your software!"

Yup, that's cryptic alright. I'll bet the FBI's first question will be to ask what he meant by that.

can you say PENIS?

[leuk_he]

from the story:

The "Blaster.B" version of the infection, which began spreading Aug. 13, was remarkably similar to the original Blaster worm that struck two days earlier; experts said its author made few changes, including renaming the infecting-file from "msblast" to an anatomical reference.

can you say "PENIS.EXE" that was the executable name of the variant.

And any bystander seeing some kid playing with "PENIS" might call the police.

How to code this: "RENAME MSBLAST.EXE PENIS.EXE" (and a replace of the strings)

Where's the legal defense fund?

[goldspider]

This kid wasn't doing ANYTHING WRONG!

This is the beauty of OPEN SOURCE!! He got ahold of some code, modified and improved it, and released it back into the public domain! That's how it's SUPPOSED to work!

Think of the outrage that would have been touched off if he kept the modified code for his own use... INFORMATION WANTS TO BE FREE!!!

Where do I send my money? This guy is a HERO, not a CRIMINAL!

Re:A witness turned him in?!?

[Mostly a lurker]

...probably virgin...

Well, jail will no doubt solve that problem ...

Re:If

[davmoo]

Yes, I did. And in fact I did before the virus was even released. Further, I blocked port 135 at my router the day the virus was released. I have never even once had a virus infect any computer I own, even the ones running Microsoft OSes and Outlook/Outlook Express, and I've owned computers since 1980 starting with a TRS-80 Model 1.

Don't assume that because I think the little shits that write viruses should be held accountable for their actions that I am a newbie, a Microsoft fanboy, or a victim. You would be very wrong on all three counts.

If I were to remove the driver side window from my car and replace it with a piece of trash bag, making the car obviously insecure to anyone with more than two brain cells, that still does not give someone the right to damage the interior of my car. Likewise, just because Microsoft peddles insecure garbage does not give some little pimple-faced moron with no social life other than his left hand the right to damage someone's computer.

Re:Too late...

[commodoresloat]

That's your GNU/gnu, you insensitive clod!

Re:A witness turned him in?!?

[eggplantpasta]

You mean this Movie OS [userfriendly.org]?

Re:relevant haiku

[liquidsin]

geek who goes to jail
gets to learn all about sex.
he's one-up on you!

Re:how odd, not the situation here in UK

[SlamMan]

Dude, that was totally incoherent. Go get your coffee, and try again.

Re:can you say PENIS?

[Animus Howard]

> And any bystander seeing some kid playing
> with "PENIS" might call the police.

That may be my all-time favorite SlashDot quote.

Re:A witness turned him in?!?

[3terrabyte]

I think I saw this movie!

The kids name is ZeroCool, and everything will be just fine, because in the end, he gets Angelina Jolie.

more news

[Molina the Bofh]

Redmond, VA: The youngster will be charged by two companies with accusations of reverse engineering. Citing the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), Microsoft is accusing him of implementing a piece of code that circunvents patented Microsoft's Windows protection.

Richard Ludwig, attorney for Microsoft, said "My clients believe that the writer of this virus is actively destroying the value of my client's proprietary technology, and demand that this viral activity cease immediately."

Mark Scheise, attorney for SCO, said the teenager violated its intellectual property rights by using SCO code in the virus. He said that each bit from its code was a perfect match with SCO's code. "He was using exactly the same two bits as SCO, just in another sequence". Scheise also added that this was not just a coincidence, and denied any request to disclose wich are the two bits. "I can't tell you wich are these two bits, but I assure you they're the same as thos used by SCO".

7-11

[golgotha007]

i hope he gets to finish his Big Gulp before the feds throw him in the van...

The most likely reason

[JamesP]

is that this guy was caught using telnet/pine to read his mail at home and some other kid saw this "very complicated" screen with no buttons and not even a paper clip to help in this task

So, he's quite obviously 1337 h4x0r...

Re:Seriously? Arrest Microsoft, Inc.

[dmaxwell]

Build a fence around the Microsoft Campus. The Great Wall of Redmond.

And when the Mongolians come to tear it down, we'll dump sweet-and-sour pork on their heads.

Can We Finally Consolidate Bumper Stickers?

[syntap]

With "Free Kevin" already on my bumper I'm running out of room... can we just have a "Free Hackerz" or "Free Lamerz" sticker for this one?

Re:A witness turned him in?!?

[humming]

Those who write a virus using a CAD program deserves jail...

--H

Re:A witness turned him in?!?

[NDPTAL85]

More like someone will be worming their way into him pretty soon.

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

LOVE SAN!

[StrawberryFrog]

It is clear what has happened. Young passions don't last. San (Sandra? Sanchez? Sanitarytowel?) has finally cracked and dumped her acne-faced geek-boy in the worst possible way...

Re:Seriously? Arrest Microsoft, Inc.

[beowulfcluster]

Start charging the folks who deploy Microsoft for negligence.

"Nobody ever got jailed for buying Redhat."

Re:A witness turned him in?!?

[elel]

Actually, that's HollywoodOS and I hold the patent on it. I figure there's a market for idiots who want to bang on their keyboard haphazardly and have any number of complex processes happen as a result. I also think that more people than just myself want hexagonal windows to be the standard shape.

Anyone want to start a project?

That'd be the butt, Bob

[The Ape With No Name]

Federal. Ass-pounding. Facility.

Re:He did not write MS blaster

[sacrilicious]

Scene: lockdown time in fed pen.

MSBlaster Author: Hey, why are you guys sneaking into my cell?
Big Burt: To teach you a little lesson. Here in the pen, there are two types we don't like: child molesters and computer virus writers.
(Others): *menacing mutters of assent*
MSBlaster Author: But MY virus attacked Windows systems!
Large Larry: Oh! Hey, that's cool. We thought you were attacking linux. We're very sorry to bother you, we'll be leaving now.

Re:Will be arresting...

[marko123]

He'll get an extra 20 minutes warning if he is a subscriber. If he gets done 10 minutes after reading about it, I bet he'll wish he did :)

interestingly, The Virus had a GPL licence

[goombah99]

It turns out the virus had been released under a GPL licence. It was open source. The kid made some changes so he was REQUIRED by the GPL to release them.

But you are of course obliged to make a good faith efferot test your software and make sure it does not have simple bugs, compiles and runs before you release it. The kid was obviously just releasing his testing his changes prior to releasing the source as he was required to do under the GPL.

all viruses should be GPL. THen bill gates will really be right.

Re:A witness turned him in?!?

[StikyPad]

One day your testes will drop and you'll realize that cooties aren't such a bad thing after all. Or maybe they are, but you won't care. Or so I'm told.

But does anyone think of San?

[Snarfangel]

No one thinks of the poor girl the worm was dedicated to. The guy will probably forget all about her in prison, and may even write a "LoveBrunoMyCellmate" worm to keep himself occupied.

Re:A witness turned him in?!?

[rhiorg]

...with the obligatory progress bar showing how much of the virus/worm/trojan has been uploaded to the 'net.

Re:A witness turned him in?!?

[LineNoiz]

...an arrest has not yet been made...

Well, if he does read /., I'm sure he's busy running a big frickin magnet over his hard drive(s) right about now...

Re:A witness turned him in?!?

[jazman_777]

Although let's not hang him before the trial.

Let's give him a fair trial, _then_ let's give him a first-class hangin'!

Re:A witness turned him in?!?

[zalas]

> shouldn't that be small FRY?

Engrish stlikes again!

Re:George Carlin

[Anonymous Coward]

That's not funny you sick fuck.

Re:Belittling ourselves

[TheAncientHacker]

I've generally found that people making fun of "18 year old virgins" are, themselves, 20+ year old virgins.

Re:A witness turned him in?!?

[bobKali]

I saw Sarah Good writing the virus! I saw Goody Osborne writing the virus!