Maker of Kournikova Gets Wrist Slapped Too

shelflife writes: "This story says 'It is the first time in history that the maker of a computer virus has been tried in the Netherlands -- indeed one of the few times it has been done in the world. Hypponen knows only of one conviction. A man was sentenced to 18 months in jail in the U.K. in the early 1990s. The man served 11 months, said Hypponen.' but that can't be true. What about Robert Morris? Anyway, the requested sentence is amazingly light -- 240 hours of civil service." The really interesting part is that this kid wasn't even a programmer. He just downloaded a kit. Shows how far this Virus Craze has gone in the last few years.

Comments

Virus code and their evolution...

[Angry White Guy]

I don't know if it's just me or not, but I loved the Anna Kournakova breakout. It just proves that most computer users are not computer specialists. It reaffirms my career choice
I really appreciate the amount of work that goes into a well-written virus, but still marvel at how a piece of junk like Kournakova can bring some of the largest companies to its knees, no matter how much precaution is taken. I got to witness a large portion of Ford and GM's internet capability go down because many of its suppliers got infected and ate up all their bandwidth. Scary to say the least.
Now I don't know how many people here remember virus outbreaks like stoned and Andromeda which relied on stealth rather than the brute force methodologies used today. Those Old school viruses were designed, not written. But as bandwith increased, and more people got wired, the use of smash attacks increased, and there was a signifigant paradigm shift.
The social engineering and evasion methodologies also changed. Extrapolate these tendencies to society, and you have yet another fairly accurate method to judge society and the changes which it has undergone.

Angry White Guy

--Study viruses for fun and profit. Join the ranks of the 5cR1p71n6 1337!