Information Security News: Swedish Worm Writer Nabbed

[InfoSec News <isn () c4i org>]

http://www.wired.com/news/infostructure/0,1377,58201,00.html

Associated Press  
March 25, 2003 

STOCKHOLM, Sweden -- Swedish police said Tuesday they detained the
creator of a computer virus that had tried to trick recipients into
opening and spreading it by offering war-related messages.

Police said the virus, dubbed Ganda, clogged thousands of computers
worldwide last week, reproducing itself by sending out e-mail messages
offering screensavers with names like "Spy pics" and "Go USA."

A message hidden in the virus helped Swedish investigators trace the
suspect to Haernoesand, 250 miles north of the capital, Stockholm,
police spokesman Torbjoern Ull said.

He said the man confessed to creating and spreading the virus after
police raided his home Friday. He was not arrested, but prosecutor
Kristina Brolin said she would file charges of computer trespassing
and inflicting damage.

The suspect, whose name and age were not released, could face up to
four years in prison.

In the message, sent to several newspapers in Sweden, the suspect
complained about the Swedish educational system, Ull said.

"He feels he has been unfairly treated during his school days and he
wants to alert the media to his problems," Ull said.

Per Hellqvist, a spokesman for the Swedish unit of Internet security
company Symantec, said the virus had a limited reach, perhaps because
some of the text was in Swedish.



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