Teen virus writer sentenced to 18 months in prison

A teenage virus writer has been sentenced to 18 months in prison for creating the Blaster-B worm, which has caused an estimated $1.2 million in damage to thousands of computer networks.

Jeffrey Lee Parson, 19, from Hopkins, Minnesota faces a year and a half in jail and a further 10 months community service, after a US district court found him guilty of writing the Blaster-B worm which infected more than 48,000 computers when it spread in August 2003.

Parson admitted to creating the 'B' or 'teekids' variant of the worm, which exploited a serious hole in the Windows operating system to launch an attack on Microsoft's web site.

But the teenager, who escaped a maximum sentence of 37 months, may have to pay Microsoft up to $600,000 when court officials meet in February to decide how much compensation should be paid.

'An 18 month prison sentence is probably the best that Jeffrey Parson could have realistically hoped for,' said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at anti-virus firm Sophos. 'The US authorities have demonstrated their determination to deal with virus writers and other cyber criminals.'

The virus was made available for download on Parson's web site, next to music lyrics for heavy metal bands Judas Priest and Megadeth, and infected more than 50 PCs before spreading globally.

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