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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.
That sounds fishy.
The average person wouldn't have a clue about what a developer was doing. There's no way someone can walk by and know that the guy was testing a virus.
The article states that this "18 year old" is the author, but later on it talks about how he was "observed testing" which all sounds a bit dubious. Assuming he is the author I have very little sympathy, virus writers need to be accountable for their actions. If however he is just been made a scapegoat......
Of course the witness was also last seen purchasing a shark tank and some laser beams...
"Learning is not compulsory... neither is survival."
--Dr.W.Edwards Deming
Almost certainly, "witnessed" here means bragged to, which frankly makes perfect sense for an 18 year old probably male, probably virgin programmer. Hey, if he's up all night reading /. he may yet beat the feds and run to Canada ;^)
Or have we forgotten how the system works?
Alleged writer. Innocent until proven guilty beyond all reasonable doubt.
Based on this report, the evidence so far is one witness of unknown competence. "Testing the infection"? I "tested the infection" yesterday by making sure that AVG can contain Blaster.
Oh, I'm sure that the FBI aren't (quite) dumb enough to announce this without doing some investigation, but the fact that they're announcing it as a fait accompli before they've even made the arrest indicates that this is a PR exercise.
But that's irrelevant speculation, because whatever their or my or your opinion on it, this guy is innocent... pause for breath... until proven guilty beyond all reasonable doubt. Let's drop the tabloid press pack mentality here.
If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.
prison rape is not
a laughing matter. I think
you are all sick fucks
I am pretty sure it isn't illegal. What is illegal is putting it on someone's computer or network without permission, intentionally spreading it (in an active form) or allowing it to spread itself across space one does not own.
Since a virus is nothing more than a computer program, it would be incredibly difficult to make writing one illegal without catching a lot of legitimate software in the same net.
eg - Under a literal interpretation of one of Britain's early "anti-virus/anti-trojan" statutes, Windows 95 would have qualified as a 70 megabyte trojan!
So the writers of these virii certainly are doing a bad thing and certainly are aware of this, but it seems to me that Windows/Outlook/Office ship with a big red button and endless admonitions not to push it. Of the two, the button maker and the button pusher, I know who I find fault with most, but I suspect that the media and most observers are becoming accustomed to these ridiculous risk exposures as somehow inherent in computing and thus tend not to blame the button maker. Think also that this effect has something to do with why these problems never seem to actually get *fixed*.
Folks, I know that "prison rape" jokes sound funny. I know that everyone gets a laugh when someone mentions "federal pound-me-in-the-ass prison." Yes, Office Space was one of the best movies ever made. No, that doesn't make prison rape hilarious.
Imagine if it were you in prison.
I have been incarcerated, and while I wasn't physically accosted (though I don't doubt that it may have happened if I'd been prescribed a longer stay), the sexual humiliation was probably the worst part of the experience. Prisoners have to shower. Together. And the jailors have seemingly no end of dick-jokes.
You have to disrobe before you get into the shower, obviously. You leave your prison garb in a "cubby" type lockeresque rack, and you hope that a) you remember which cubby you put your garb in and b) some joker doesn't forget such and take yours by accident.
After taking your clothes off, you have to pass by several guards before you get into the showers proper. And the guards utter sexually oriented insults to every inmate who walks past. "Hey smallcock." "How come you're so eager to get in the shower with a bunch of naked men?" "I bet all these guys want to have a big orgy!" "Today was grits and eggs for breakfast, but it must be sausage for dinner!" "Look at this, a whole shower full of little dicks!" etc. No, I'm not joking, the jailors really say this shit.
This was humiliating enough. I can't imagine the torture of actual prison rape. It happens, people, and it's very real. The things that go on in jail, most people (who, of course, have never been to jail) would not believe unless they witnessed it themselves. I hope that you don't have to, but at the same time, please have a modicum of respect for those of us who have been there, and those who are still there for whatever reason. I'm not asking you to have sympathy for people who have committed crimes; you do the crime, you do the time. But being a criminal does not mean you deserve sexual assault.
No aspect of prison is funny.
None.
The sad thing is they'll fail to catch the original Blaster author so they'll throw the book at this kid for the whole Blaster thing.
Yet cars seem to still have so many security faults that are known, document, but unfixed. The biggest one is the highspeed collision. Running a car into another object, espically a car moving the the opposite direction, is highly likely to cause a catastrophic failure that often results in serious injury or death. This is a known flaw, it isn't like it is a mystery what happens when cars crash. It is even something that can be fixed to a degree with more durable, race-car style frames and 5/8 point safety harnessess instead of seatbelts.
Now of course this isn't seen as a reason to sue car makers because it is an unintended way of using your car. You aren't SUPPOSED to crash it, and if you are a good driver you won't unless another bad driver hits you. The things that concern people are when cars fail when they do nothing wrong, ie the Firestone tire thing, or when the kind of failure is out of perportion with the mistake, ie low speed collison leads to gas tank explosion.
Well, see, with computer security vunerabilites you are talking about people making unexpected use of your product. They are sending bad data to it, data it isn't designed to accept or work with. Somethimes this causes an unexpected result.
So as far as I'm concerned, the computer world already has BETTER safety than automobiles. People can do all sorts of nasty, unexpected things to my computer, and it will shrug them off as if it were nothing. Any time some problem IS discovered, I am given an update to fix it. This would be like driving around in a car that had unpickable locks, un breakable glass, would not damage you or itself when you hit a wall, etc. Then if it was discovered that, for example, a certian acid could melt your locks and let someone in, they'd send you new locks that were impervious to that.
Now of course software is virtual and so this can be done whereas it can't with a physical thing liek cars, but I'm not seeing any problems here. All security holes come from assholes trying to do things they shouldn't. I gaurentee if you setup a seperate physical trusted network with only users you know to not be hax0rs you will never find a system comprmised, even if they all remaing unpatched. It is only when you connect to the internet and every asshat is free to try and do all sorts of things they shouldn't are you in any danger.
Reread the article. They didn't bust the original author. They busted the lamewad that renamed msblast.exe to penis32.exe -- all he did was modify the existing virus.
Granted, the dipshit _touched_ the virus code and released a variant (albeit an extremely unoriginal one)
It was probably about as difficult as hex-editing a file. Gee. 5 minutes of dicking around is going to get him a life long prison ass pounding. Way to go, Genius.
And of course the uninformed media is going to paint the dumb bastard to be THE msblast author. Can anyone say "Scapegoat?"
I bet this wittness was a person who was a friend of his who ratted him out. He probablly told him or showed him something about what he was actually doing.
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Adobe's anti-counterfeiting softw
When I read the piece, my initial reaction was, "They really should arrest Bill Gates". However, on some reflection, I'm not so sure Microsoft is the sole source of all the disruption over these worms.
OK, so the MS software makes worms and virus spreading relatively easy, due to activeX, executable mail attachments and bad security "out of the box" (open ports, exposed services such as RPC etc).
Still, if a motor manufacturer sold a mass market car without locks, windows or an alarm system, would anybody buy it?
The answer is, probably not. There's the issue of personal responsability to obtain a secure car. Same with software. Maybe it's all of those major businesses and misguided "CIOs" who keep buying Microsoft who ought to be arrested. Between them and the Microsoft execs, they've managed to create an environment which makes it easy for these bored young men to create worms.
Poor 18 year old guy. Why should he be arrested? After all, what's a script(kiddie) among friends?
The MSBlast worm was responsible for one of the worst computer security outbreaks of this year.
Where it should read....
Microsoft was responsible for one of the worst computer security outbreaks of this year.
From the BBC article found here
Personally, the media is more focused on promoting the stereotype of the teenage kid who has go nothing better to do that 'hack' computer systems. The emphasis should be on why it was so easy for an amateur was able to write such a destructive program. Bottom line is that Microsoft writes bad software, and people need to know this. Obviously Microsoft isn't 100% responsible for this, but making a media scapegoat isn't going to solve the underlying problem. I don't feel sorry at all for the Maryland Department of Motor Vehicles. They deserved what happened to them, it was only through their own ignorance that it happened. People in today's society want to use computer, bur rarely take the time to learn and understand even the most basic principles of how they work. And what heppens is after that, they expect techies like us to take their shit.
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Adobe's anti-counterfeiting softw
The sad thing is they'll fail to catch the original Blaster author so they'll throw the book at this kid for the whole Blaster thing.
This seems to be the prevailing sentiment here and honestly, it's making you all look like a bunch of script kiddies, or at the very least script kiddie sympathizers.
Fact is this 18 year old "kid" (actually, adult in this country) committed a crime if he wrote this virus variant and distributed it. While he's still innocent until proven guilty, I fail to see how it's "sad" to get any virus writer - big or small - out of the virus writing business.
This is the way law enforcement works. You can't catch everybody who commits a crime, and if you don't show that you're actively enforcing the law, there will be more criminals. Study after study after study have shown this to be the absolute truth. Even if they don't catch the writer of the original Blaster, catching this guy and making an example out of him - as well as any other virus writers they no doubt will catch in the future - will act as something of a deterrent. You're all operating under the assumption that this guy is a small-fry writing viruses in his spare time - you think it's worth it to a guy like that to risk jail time? No, and this will cause others like him to think twice.
Obvious analogy - when there aren't any cops around, I see a lot of people run red lights. When there is a cop stationed at an intersection, I see nobody running red lights. Funny how that works.
And if his punishment is harsh, so what? If he's found guilty, he's a criminal. He deserves whatever he gets at that point. People need to take responsibility for their own actions and realize that their actions have consequences, both for the people they directly affect (ie. those infected by this variant of the Blaster virus) and for themselves. You'd think Slashdot readers would have a little more grasp of this concept than most (being open-source advocates), but it appears this may not be the case.
Ha ha, yes, it is quite amusing to be sent to prison for a nonviolent offense (typing on a keyboard, for instance) and subsequently violently raped repeatedly by multiple large black men while the guards stand by and laugh and the prison wardens make no effort to keep it from happening. We will be sure to laugh heartily when you, your brother, father, son, uncle and/or cousins are sentenced to 30 days for some minor offense which they may or may not have committed. We will chuckle about the fact that they have a very good chance of coming home broken and scarred physically and psychologically by their horrifying experiences. Ha ha ha.
Rape is immoral. Rape is inhuman. Rape is cruel and unusual punishment, and we have laws against that. I always find it entertaining how our entire prison establishment feels these laws are unimportant, and our culture thinks that jokes about young, weak, and sometimes innocent people getting forcibly sodomized is a fabulous thing to joke about. Wait, no, I don't find it entertaining. I find it makes me sick to my stomach.
It's also heartening to see every prison rape joke getting a +5, Funny. Thank you, moderators. Great way to get karma. Keep up the good work.
Help Stop Prisoner Rape by not treating it like a joke.
By your rationale, we should start caning graffiti artists in the US because that would be "something of a deterrent."
It's not a matter of whether he is guilty or not, but whether he is going to get a punishment that will fit the crime.
I wouldn't be surprised if the media makes this out into another Kevin Mitnick scenario.
So what do we do with this stupid kid? In an age when dorking around on your computer can cause millions of dollars in lost revenue (albiet, you probably know if you're about to release a worm), these things are going to happen more and more often.
1) Does this kid need to learn his lession in jail?
No, This kid is young. He's stupid. I'm sure he didn't do this realizing that he'd be headed to jail in a few months (if proven guilty). But what do you do with someone who's broken the law like this? Send him to Microsoft to learn how to fix bugs and become a programmer? Take him to the programmer who was responsible for the bug and tell them that this 18 year old kid made him look like a dumbass? Who knows?
2) Does Microsoft need to fix their insecurities?
This is as much MS's fault as it is anyone elses. I mean, if I bought a car (I hate to bring the whole car analogy thing up again) and someone came along and leaned up on it wrong and it stopped working. I'd be pissed at the manufacturer, not so much the leaner (who is laying on the ground with a bloody nose by now).
Just some thoughts.
T.
>And if his punishment is harsh, so what? If he's found guilty, he's a criminal. He deserves whatever he gets at that point.
NO NO NO NO! He deserves a punishment fitting the crime. If he wrote one variant, he should NOT be incriminated based on the damage done by ALL the variants. Sure he should get into serious trouble. Sure he should probably do some jail time. But my fear is that people will get carried away because of all the virus/worm activity lately and give him a lot worse than he's due. We'd like to think the justice system is above that, but sadly thats not always the case.
The logic here is unbelieveable. So if you forget to lock a window in your home, and a burglar comes in and steals your stuff, and the burglar gets caught, YOU should be prosecuted for burglary for leaving the window open?
Yeah, some might say YOU should be more careful for not locking the window... but the REAL criminal still is the burglar that took your stuff! M$ has some serious problems, but that doesn't mean we should lose all of our common sense JUST to attack them some more.
Does M$ software have security issues? Yeah. Should script kiddies be let off easy because they take advantage of these problems? No. They are no better than the burglar that entered your unlocked window!
We need to start making people take responsibility for their own ACTIONS and quit blaming others. It's like blaming a door-lock manufacturer because someone can pick the lock! There will always be people that take UNLAWFUL advantage of real or perceived situations. That doesn't mean they are any less to blame for their actions.
-=-jw-=-
Not quite; it just means he doesn't have as good a lawyer as the prosecution.
On the other hand, nobody ever said prison was supposed to be all Tea and Crumpets, either: it's punishment for crimes committed and convicted. .
The punishment is incarceration, it is NOT sodomy. I have never heard a judge say in his/her verdict, "and I convict the defendant to 5 years of incarceration, with the occasional guy holding him down and taking him anally". NO. It's against the law. Just because it's prison, it doesn't mean it's alright to break laws. Gee, if that's the case, you could slip small boys into the prison for the whole yard to have a little fun with, jesus.
-- This space for lease, low setup fee, inquire within!
I don't think the parent poster made any comments about WHAT the punishment should be, so please don't start citing rather harsh treatments to make your argument look more interesting. You could have just as easily made the statement, "By your rationale, we should start putting graffiti artists in jail for a month because that would be 'something of a deterrent.'".
Anyway, consider the fact that even though this guy only modified an existing virus, his crimes are EXACTLY the same as those of the original programmer. Writing a virus isn't a crime. Unleashing it and causing damage (economic or physical) to the property of others IS a crime. By modifying the virus, he created a new pattern that virus scanners would not recognize and thus was able to create similar damage as that of the original virus. Please explain to me how this isn't as bad as what the original author did.
My argument, by the way, is similar to ones made against the DMCA. The DMCA is being used to prosecute people who construct devices that CAN by used to circumvent copy protection. However, I think most of us agree that the real culprits are those that use it for such. In the case of viruses, if I construct a new virus, but never let it loose, am I guilty? If you manage to swipe a copy of the virus while you're at a LAN party at my house and then let it loose, aren't you the guilty one? If both of us unleash copies of the virus, aren't we both guilty?
GreyPoopon
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Why is it I can write insightful comments but can't come up with a clever signature?
It seems that everyone here is focused on putting this guy in prison. I really can't justify putting someone who wrote a virus in prison while CEOs who have stole billions roam free.
Not to mention, there were two components to this problem. People need to stand up and take some responsibility when thier machines get infected. Personal firewalls and anti-virus have become common place, so I don't take that as an excuse.
Yes, the kid should get some probation, possibly some community service managing / repairing systems for underprivelaged folks. But then that would depend on the legal system being motivated by rehabilitation and not retribution.
--WooooHoooo--
Actually, prison rape is a very racial thing. He was completely right to point out that it would almost certainly be large black men doing the raping. You see, the black gangs, and the Hispanic gangs, do not let anybody (else) touch members of their own race. The whites fail to form such gangs, and are victimized. Often the youngest white males, usually in for some sort of first time drug offence, are in the most danger. Check out the article Hard Time by Jared Taylor.
While I initially found the article linked to be interesting (and appalling), I grew uncomfortable with what appeared to be a racist bent to the editorializing in the article.
A Google search turns up the fact that Jared Taylor is considered "America's most dangerous racist." The rest of the American Renaissance site is full of erudite but clearly racist commentary.
Yes, prison rape is appalling, but a better link for reference on the topic is this one for the original book on the subject, rather than a racist's view of the material.
Yes, as a matter of fact, we *should* start caning graffiti vandals in this country. It's an effective deterrent and fits the crime. The caning should, of course, be in addition to restitution to the victims. If they can't find enough people willing to do it, I'm willing to be sworn in as a caner and help them out after work.
However, I don't think they'll have much of a problem finding caners. You may recall that at the time of that incident, the vast majority of Americans thought he was getting exactly what he deserved, and more than a few people thought he should get twice as many strokes as he got.
Please note my deliberate use of the word vandal. People who go around spray-painting other people's property are not artists; they are vandals and criminals. It costs real people real money to clean up their property after someone vandalizes it with graffiti, and quite commonly, as soon as it's cleaned, the vandals come back and do it again. When you put graffiti on your own property, that you bought and paid for, you can call yourself an artist if you want. When you put graffiti on somebody else's property without permission, you're a criminal and should be treated as such.
Please don't drag out Kevin Mitnick here. Kevin Mitnick broke the law, was caught, convicted, and sentenced fairly. He's a criminal. He's done his time and deserves a fresh start so he can make something honest of himself, but there is nothing good about the actions that led him to prison, and those who would defend him and call him a victim need to get a grip on reality.