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Louisiana Man Pleads Guilty to Creating 911 Worm
mabu writes "The United States Attorney's Office for the Northern District of California announced that, roughly a year after his arrest, David Jeansonne pleaded guilty Tuesday to two criminal counts in a scheme that sent email to users of Microsoft's WebTV Internet service containing an attachment that, when opened, reprogrammed their computers to dial 9-1-1 without their knowledge. It still unclear what motivated this 43-year-old to launch such a bizarre worm."
"Help! I'm using WebTV!"
You can have my cynical agnosticism when you pry it from my cold, dead logic.
This was a very, very, very dumb thing to do on his part. I could see the courts giving him some leniency if he was 12, but at 43 years of age I think he will get what he deserves. Does anyone know if the worm caused any delays in getting through to the 911 system that caused serious injury or death?
News Reporters Make Tasty Polar Bear Treats!
"It still unclear what motivated this 43-year-old to launch such a bizarre worm."
...
What? Mean and stupid doesn't cover it?
It's like asking why that person cut you off in traffic endangering the lives of a half-dozen others... cuz their mean and stupid. It's not some huge racist or plot
The guy probably thought he was hot shit writing a virus [instead of something productive like an OSS project that could benefit others...] and released something destructive.
The balance in me wants to say "for every good there is a bad" but fuck it. The dude's just plain mean and stupid.
Tom
Someday, I'll have a real sig.
None. He's just a dick. This isn't a cool hack or anything meaningful in computer science. It's taking an exploit of some type and messing with people's lives. Those operators on the other end and the police who are dispatched shouldn't be wasting their time with this nonsense.
Why do these people think that causing damage through an exploit is anything but stupid? It's not clever since they don't even find the exploits, they just use them.
It still unclear what motivated this 43-year-old to launch such a bizarre worm.
My guess is he wanted to flood the 911 service with useless calls, and in the long run potentially harm people because they can't get through to 911.
wow, can you say get out of your parents basement and get a girlfri....
Sorry wait, this is slashdot.
I like muppets.
..to see if he could.
That's what virus writing used to be all about. Darn kids and their spam n' such. Why in MY day we wrote virii for the pure joy of destruction and chaos!
... That only a WebTV user would be naive enough to open an attachment like that.
Sadly, I've found that the great majority of people I know apparently have the intelligence of a WebTV user.
This either means that even rudimentary computer security is far too complex for the average person, or that I need to get some new friends.
The next Slashdot story will be ready soon, but subscribers can beat the rush and slashdot the links early!
People from Louisiana can use a computer! Who'd have thought it!!
8)
Perhaps he wanted to create a Denial of Service attack against the 911 system.
-- Thou hast strayed far from the path of the Avatar.
According to TFA, only 21 people actually received this thing. I've cause more damage most days just driving to work.
Next on slashdot: Bill Gates picks nose, AGAIN! Film at 11.
Yeah? Well I think you're overrated too.
If they ever have a reality TV show based on this, I hope they won't call Eric Estrada and tell him "CHiP's" is being remade...
CHIP unit? Never heard of it.
Sorry. I must disagree. Flooding the Larry King Show with fake calls is somewhat funny. Flooding a 911 center with fake calls is NOT.
ROTFL - seriously, if you're going to email your 25 closest friends - shouldn't you first make sure your virus doesn't directly involve the police coming to their door? Granted, it might be considered a funny prank - but at least make sure you can't be traced as easily as the from: 'Best Friend in Louisianna'.
Actually, it would have been funny if it called up the local Pizza Hut. Or maybe if it randomly dialed people and asked if their refrigerator was running. This, on the other hand, was just dangerous.
Unknown host pong.
He had reprogramed them to dial romanian sex chat numbers he would have been invited to join the Direct Marketing Association.
Hey, it was one way of getting his name on Slashdot. Come on, how many of us lowly cretins here in the comments section have ever been referred to by our full names in a Slashdot post? Yeah, I can count all two of you out there. The guy's a douchebag, but, by jove, he's a famous douchebag!
Grand Theft Auto made him do it!
I'm not good in groups. It's difficult to work in a group when you're omnipotent. - Q
A prank done to annoy people results in a much greater sentence than a thousand petty crimes done for profit under a corporate banner.
When the worm hit the UK, the tape answer machine overheated "You have dialled an incorrect number... you have dialled an incorrect number... you have dialled an inco.....Pppppppppppppppppp"
You mean like printers should not be allowed to print images of money?
Where will it end? Frankly, I'd rather never see it get started.
As soon as the OS becomes your own personal government controlled police force, then we'll really be sorry.
Contrary to popular belief, coding is not all free blow-jobs and beer. Those things cost MONEY!
A few years ago with an old mini-laptop type thing(Windows CE 3), I was trying to get it to dial in to my ISP. I was messing with the dial options(like dial 9 before a #, etc), and didn't notice that it would be dialing like 1-911-#... So, when I dialed I could hear the 911 person, but since I had no mic, I had to hang up and let them call me back. Definately one of those "Oh shit" moments.
Every time you post an article on Slashdot, I kill a server. Think of the servers!
How does this have anything to do with my rights online?
The operating system should not allow a modem to dial an emergency response number without explicit authorization from the user
;)) , like dial 911 if the microphones in your yard detect a shotgun going off or if your paranoid enough , no one refreshes the /. page for 15 mins (in case of a kidnapping or something u know)
I dont think so. First of all, 911 is not an emergency number everywhere in the world. For example in may countries 100 is the emergency number. And 100 (at least with my provider ) links me to the directory service or something. So we would need to select the blocked numbers based on the country of residence. Which jest means more complications. And ofcourse ppl might want to use the computer as an emergency service (Not with MS Win though
He's an asshole?
via a modem perhaps?
Mo-dem? What is this mo-dem of which you speak?
-Forrest Cameranesi, Geek of all Trades
"I am Sam. Sam I am. I do not like trolls, flames, or spam."
It still unclear what motivated this 43-year-old to launch such a bizarre worm.
Like he's going to pull some great reason out of his ass. What could he possibly say that would make reasonable people say "Ohhh! No wonder!"?
He just saved 15% on his car insurance!
One extremely egotistical type generated a great deal of dislike, if not outright hate. Jeansonne was part of this individual's clique. The actual "exploit" is very simple to do and well known. Jeansonne was just the first person to combine the requisite amount of vindictiveness and stupidity to actually do this. Almost all WebTv users have html signitures that rival web pages in their complexity. A simple
was all that was necessary.
Having the police arrived unexpectedly at their door was very unsettling for the mostly female recipients of the email. Some were accused of making the calls on their own and threatened with arrest for missusing the 911 system.
This was not a virus, but a direct personal attack against the victims of the email.
I don't care what he says. Dialing HIS OWN PHONE and then publishing the call stats would be a proof of concept. Dialing 911, taking police away from other situations where people really need them is not a proof of concept, it's called "being an asshole."
He could have done this a bunch of different ways if he wanted a private chuckle. He could have had virus call any number even a number at a public place where he could see it happening. Set it to happen at a particular time.
He didn't do that. He had it call one of the few places the would make it certian that the police would come after him. He had it call the police.
If it had called the local Denny's he could have sat there and watched and after it was all over most people would not care to persue it.