Friday, August 29, 2003

Techweb > News > Teen Admits Creating MSBlaster, > Accused MSBlaster Creator Placed Under House Detention > August 29, 2003

Accused MSBlaster Creator Placed Under House Detention > August 29, 2003

Guilty Programmer

A programmer who modified the MSBlast worm and "released it" was "caught".

Hackers seem to have evolved a culture and ethos on the internet, spreading destruction in glass palaces that house the corporate enemy. It is an attack on the fragility of the info-wealth as bestowed by the space-shuttle-reliability of operating system software.

It is a roading system where accidents are infectious and routes of connection allow infections to become giant maurading beasts that consume man years in accelerating propensity.

A programmer may have received the virus and then saved a copy of it, slightly modified, in his shared drive so his buddy can look at it, and comment if it is a good way to spread his religious message about hacking culture and the danger of software megaliths. This culture sees Microsoft as the Enemy. This culture is largely comprised of 15 year olds and has dimimished responsibility after years of playing Counter Strike and accumulated frustration with flakey operating systems, and the requisite knowhow to fix them also gives them the means to cause a little mayhem.

Except the destruction is more like derailing a train than getting the peer support of a few buddies for a score. A score that represents billions of dollars of damage to a company.

Next the Feds are knocking down his door. His virus is all over the internet and he realises the cost of fame, being in court, then prison. By the time he gets out all operating systems will no longer have bugs.

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