Update: Blaster Kid

By | November 24, 2011
0 Comment
 The high school senior Jeffrey Lee Parson, arrested Friday for allegedly launching a worldwide computer virus, is a loner who drives too fast, AP quotes neighbours as saying. Court papers said FBI and Secret Service agents searched Parson’s Hopkins home on Aug. 19 and seized seven computers, which are still being analyzed.
 
 
In an interview with FBI Special Agent Eric Smithmier, Parson admitted modifying the original “Blaster” infection and creating a version known by a variety of different names, including “Blaster.B.,” court papers said.

News: London Still Cool For Commercial Hotspots

By | November 24, 2011
0 Comment
 Is London ready for WiFi? ZDNet UK sets out, Michelin fashion, to investigate the capital’s commercial hot spots and find out if Londoners are going mad for the technology or need to wake up and smell the coffee. Their conclusion: poorly advertised services, bad login procedures, no onsite help, and very little sign anyone is using the services available.
 
 
 

Mail: How Should Virus Writers Be Punished

By | November 24, 2011
1 Comment
 This from reader Mark N. Metz, CEO of Stop Piracy Now, Inc. I wrote about the just arrested teenager suspected of being the author of a variant of the Master worm: ‘Can’t help feeling sorry for the kid. He is going down.” Mark has this to say:
 
You’re kidding, right?  What if the kid’s worm took down a hospital’s emergency-room server with patient records, or took down a 911 call center in the middle of a frantic call? 
If the same kid poured gasoline on a hospital or a 911 call center and lit a match, everyone would understand that it’s arson and it’s a hideous felony. And it is critically important to recognize why arson is punished the way it is — it puts people’s lives in grave danger.  People die when other people do these kinds of destructive things.
The buildings in my analogy could be rebuilt just as servers can be rebuilt, but dead people can’t.  If someone hasn’t died yet from one of these computer vandals, it is a miracle that all of us should be thankful for.  The law needs to start taking these online crimes as seriously as they do the offline ones.
 
I don’t feel one bit sorry for the kid.  They should throw the book at him.
 
Fair enough, Mark, and maybe I should have chosen my words better. Actually I was referring more to the fact that he knows he’s about to be arrested and how that must feel. But also, if the guy is 18, I’m not sure he knew this was going to happen. I agree virus writers should be held responsible and punished. But how many viruses are unleashed on the world that don’t get anywhere? Should virus writers be punished for the enormity of the result or for the fact they write a virus in the first place? I don’t know the answer. Thoughts, anyone?

Update: Blaster B Suspect Is About To Be Arrested

By | November 24, 2011
0 Comment
 There must be at least one frightened teenager out there today. AP reports that U.S. investigators have identified a teenager as one author of a version of the Blaster worm and plan to arrest him early Friday (U.S. time). A witness reportedly saw the teen testing the infection and called authorities, an official said. The worm and its variants infected more than 500,000 computers worldwide.
 
The “Blaster.B” version of the infection, which began spreading Aug. 13, was remarkably similar to the original Blaster worm that first struck two days earlier; experts said the author made few changes, renaming the infecting-file from “msblast” to an anatomical reference. Can’t help feeling sorry for the kid. He is going down.

News: ‘RIAA Are Not Dumb’ Shock

By | November 24, 2011
0 Comment
 The RIAA are not dumb. That’s for sure. AP reports that court papers filed against a Brooklyn woman fighting efforts to identify her for allegedly sharing nearly 1,000 songs over the Internet, show that “using a surprisingly astute technical procedure, the Recording Industry Association of America examined song files on the woman’s computer and traced their digital fingerprints back to the former Napster file-sharing service, which shut down in 2001 after a court ruled it violated copyright laws”.
 
 
The RIAA’s latest court papers describe in unprecedented detail some sophisticated forensic techniques used by its investigators. For example, the industry disclosed its use of a library of digital fingerprints, called “hashes,” that it said can uniquely identify MP3 music files that had been traded on the Napster service as far back as May 2000. By comparing the fingerprints of music files on a person’s computer against its library, the RIAA believes it can determine in some cases whether someone recorded a song from a legally purchased CD or downloaded it from someone else over the Internet. A sobering thought.