Teen sentenced for unleashing Blaster worm

SEATTLE - A federal judge has sentenced a teenager to a year and half of prison for releasing a variant of the Blaster worm that was used to attack more than 48,000 computers.

Jeffrey Lee Parson, 19, appeared in US District Court in Seattle, where he was also ordered to perform community service, pay restitution and be placed under supervision for three years following the sentence.

"If you use the internet to harm people, it will be investigated and you will be punished," Jeff Sullivan, chief of the criminal division of the US Attorney's office in Seattle, told reporters.

US District Judge Marsha Pechman, however, did not give the Minnesota teen the maximum 37-month sentence, saying Parson wrote malicious software and used it to attack other computers partly because of neglectful upbringing and supervision.

Parson, who was brought in from his home in Hopkins, Minnesota, pleaded guilty to creating a variant of the worm, which infected computers in mid-2003 and targeted computers at Microsoft Corp.

Parson said he created his "B" or "teekids" variant of the Blaster worm and used it to access fifty computers which he then used to launch a broader attack on more than 48,000 computers.

Attorneys from Microsoft's headquarters in Redmond, Washington, a Seattle suburb, said that damages could easily amount to more than a million dollars.

A hearing for the amount of restitution to be paid to Microsoft and others affected by Parson's Blaster variant will be held in February.

Blaster and its variants are self-replicating internet worms that bore through a security hole in Windows, Microsoft's operating system which is found on more than 90 per cent of the world's personal computers.

- REUTERS