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Thread: Some high-profile computer virus cases

  1. #1
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    Some high-profile computer virus cases

    Some high-profile computer virus senders who have been caught:

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    1988 - Robert Tappan Morris released the so-called "Morris Worm" on Nov. 2, 1988, that crippled about 6,000 computer systems -- about a tenth of the Internet at the time, and resulted in about $15 million in damage. Morris, whose father was a computer security expert with the National Security Agency, later said it was just a stunt and that he regretted his actions. He was placed on three years' probation, given 400 hours of community service and fined $10,000. He is now an assistant professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

    1991 - Joe Popp of Cleveland, Ohio, mailed about 20,000 copies of software to subscribers of a British computer magazine that included a program that damaged users' computers. He was extradited to England, but then ejected from the country after appearing in court with a box on his head and rollers in his beard. He was later sentenced to six months in jail in Italy on similar charges.

    1995 - Christopher Pile, then 26, was sentenced to 18 months in custody in the United Kingdom for writing and sending two computer viruses, "Pathogen" and "Queeg," named after expressions used in the British Sci-Fi comedy "Red Dwarf." He was the first person in the United Kingdom to be convicted of writing and distributing computer viruses.

    1998 - The Korean National Police Agency caught a group of university students calling themselves "CVC" who had disseminated information on how to write computer viruses. They were released after authorities concluded their actions were not illegal.

    1999 - Chen Ing-hau, then 24, admitted to Taiwanese authorities that he created the "Chernobyl" virus that triggers on April 26, the anniversary of the Soviet Union's nuclear disaster. He wasn't charged initially because police said no one filed a complaint, but a year later, when the virus struck again, he was charged. A police statement said, "He did not expect the virus to cause such a great impact. He regretted his deeds and apologizes."

    2000 - Onel de Guzman, then 23, a computer school dropout in the Philippines, was arrested but then released and not prosecuted after authorities realized they had no laws to charge the admitted sender of the "ILOVEYOU" virus, which struck computers around the world causing more than $7 billion in damage. Such laws have since been passed.

    2001 -- Jan De Wit, then 20, of the Netherlands, was ordered to perform 150 hours of community service after telling a Dutch court he had no idea of the impact he would have when he created the "Anna Kournikova" virus that snarled e-mail traffic around the world. His collection of about 7,500 viruses was also confiscated. "I don't know what fascinated me. When I think about it now, I should never have started this collection," he told the court.

    2002 - David Smith, of Aberdeen, N.J, was sentenced to 20 months in jail and fined $5,000 following plea bargains reached in December 1999 with state and federal prosecutors for creating the "Melissa" virus that snarled e-mail worldwide, causing more than $80 million in damage. Smith, who was 34 when he was sentenced, is in federal prison at Fort Dix, N.J.

    2003 - Simon Vallor, 22, of North Wales, was sentenced to two years in jail in January 2003 after pleading guilty in London to writing and distributing three computer viruses, "Gokar," "Redesi" and "Admirer," which infected an estimated 27,000 PCs in 42 countries.
    source here :http://www.boston.com/business/techn...r_virus_cases/
    guru@linux:~> who I grep -i blonde I talk; cd ~; wine; talk; touch; unzip; touch; strip; gasp; finger; mount; fsck; more; yes; gasp; umount; make clean; sleep;

  2. #2
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    Very cool list, Null, kinda reminds me of a line from a "dead" tune..."what a long strange trip it's been". I did a report for school once that compared the time it took a malware to become the number one issue. Jerusalem took about three years and accounted for hundreds of thousands of dollars in clean-up compared with a mass-mailed that took three days and has cost estimates in the high millions!

    Thanks, Null, for this - very interesting.
    Where\'s the ka-booom?
    There was supposed to be an earth-shattering ka-booom!

  3. #3
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    Cheers, Null that was a good read

    Doe's anyone know what the most destructive virus/worm etc has been to date? Would MSBlaster top the list or have I forgotten something?

    This question probably has two parts now that I think about it: Most wide spread and most destructive..... Anyone have any ideas?

    R.

  4. #4
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    I Think the most destructive virus/worm in terms of $'s was either the lovebug or Code Red. I am not sure which i will have to look it up later

  5. #5
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    Between the two it is Code Red but I think the current winner is either Sobig.xxx or Blaster (and all it's renditions). I know my customer is still dealing with several infections of Blaster-like infections world-wide and they can't possibly be alone in this.

    It seems that most "destructive" and wide-spread are almost synonymous today. Early on, Jerusalem was not very "destructive" (by today's standards) and wasn't very wide-spread either since it required a floppy to spread from system to system - aaaaaah good ol' sneaker net daze...

    Robert Morris' exercise wasn't very wide-spread either but it managed to take out nearly 30% of the internet (as it stood in 1988) and THAT was a real bastard!

    Point is, not to reminisce but to say that something doesn't have to be wide-spread to be "destructive" but lately that seems to be the trend. The writers are getting better at exploiting zero-day vulnerabilities and putting them into hybrid attacks (mail, web, server-side exploits, well-known services, etc...)
    Where\'s the ka-booom?
    There was supposed to be an earth-shattering ka-booom!

  6. #6
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    SoBig.F till date has proven to be the fast spreading .... may costly too in $$$ not sure for that...
    guru@linux:~> who I grep -i blonde I talk; cd ~; wine; talk; touch; unzip; touch; strip; gasp; finger; mount; fsck; more; yes; gasp; umount; make clean; sleep;

  7. #7
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    I think the costs are a little skewed. These reports tend to be over inflated and very hard to delineate. I would prefer to see the "most damaging" decision be solely based on how wide-spread, persistent, and elusive the little bugger is. Yes, the man-hours, down-time, and so forth are all part of the costs but they still seem overstated to me (Code Red cost BILLIONS????). In some ways it appears the folks making these reports are adding the cost of a/v software (which they should have been running but weren't) and other protective measures that were not in-place but should have been.

    This brings up a question - how do you decide (define) the damage caused by a malware? What do you use to define the damage? How do you categorize the type of damage? What about Hybrid malware?

    nuff for now
    Where\'s the ka-booom?
    There was supposed to be an earth-shattering ka-booom!

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