Federal prosecutors predictably touted Parson's guilty plea as an example for other would-be vandals. John McKay, the US Attorney for Seattle, proclaimed: "The damage to individual computer users is very real, and the penalties are also very real."
Not really. McKay neglected to mention that Parson's all-expense-paid visit to Club Fed will be surprisingly brief. Prosecutors say that the deal they cut means that Parson, who is 19 years old, will be sentenced to between 18 and 37 months.
That's mild punishment for someone who admitted to inserting nasty features into the original version of MSBlast to make it more noxious. By releasing his "MSBlast.B" variant that took advantage of a bug in Microsoft Windows, Parson intentionally harmed tens of thousands of people for his own amusement.
Compare Parson's sentence with the far stiffer penalties that the government metes out to marijuana "criminals," who harm nobody and cause no property damage. For the 2001 fiscal year, the average sentence for a marijuana offence was 38 months in prison, according to the Office of National Drug Control Policy.
Parson could be serving more time if he had simply stolen a neighbour's car on a whim. The average federal sentence for motor vehicle theft in 2000 was 28 months, the US Justice Department reports. Aggravated assault is punished with an average sentence of 33 months.
If prosecutors took real computer crimes seriously, might that deter future worm attacks? Consider that federal law says the maximum penalty for the offences listed in Parson's arrest warrant is at least 30 years.
Few caught, fewer go to prison
Light sentences for worm and virus writers is hardly a new phenomenon. In 1988, a Cornell University graduate student named Robert T. Morris released the first Internet worm -- and was eventually sentenced to three years' probation, 400 hours of community service and a $10,000 (£5,484) fine.
Morris probably didn't deserve a harsher sentence. He never meant for his worm to spread so quickly that it became a worldwide menace (a programming error, not malice, made that happen). Today's generation of so-called script kiddies have no excuse: their handiwork is carefully crafted to be both disruptive and destructive.
Talkback
oh god.
please tell us how locking up a teenager for another couple of years is going to solve worldwide cyber-crime. Do you really think the virus coders believe they will get caught?
And what are they going to do after release from prison (at huge cost to the taxpayer), unable to get a decent job, and armed with years of knowledge and contacts in 'real' crime too?
Perhaps the comparison with the (ridiculous) marijuana sentencing says more about the hugely successful 'war on drugs' than the appropriate sentencing for unrelated crimes..
Dumping chlorine and mercury into a creek deserves greater punishment because it endangers the lives of wildlife and humans.
Computer viruses do not endanger life.
I can say that if I am lucky enough find this over grown assinine 30 year old kid, I'm in the mood to give out an ass kicking. If this jerk David , ever comes to west palm beach florida, I want to know about it. Although I had not been infected with the virus, I like to use these kind of jerks for my punching bag.
Ignorant People.
vvvvvvvvvvvv
oh god.
please tell us how locking up a teenager for another couple of years is going to solve worldwide cyber-crime. Do you really think the virus coders believe they will get caught?
And what are they going to do after release from prison (at huge cost to the taxpayer), unable to get a decent job, and armed with years of knowledge and contacts in 'real' crime too?
Perhaps the comparison with the (ridiculous) marijuana sentencing says more about the hugely successful 'war on drugs' than the appropriate sentencing for unrelated crimes..
via Facebook
** Isn't is crazy how ignorant people can actually be? REAL crime? Cyber crime IS a real crime! I hope that someone hacks into all of your financial information and steals every dime that you have. THEN you'll cry and cry because nothing is being done about someone stealing something from YOU. You'll learn that cyber crime is a VERY REAL crime, and it can affect a lot of people and ruin their lives. Of course, you probably don't care because it wasn't done to...you...right? Being in law enforcement, I've seen everything. And cyber crime is just as much up there as any other crime. Hacking into someone's financial profile is just as equevilent as robbing a bank. See the comparison now? If you don't, then just stop talking, people want to hear facts over opinion, keep it to yourself. I have the facts here.