Sasser Author Arrested

[clocker]

Originally posted by barbarossa@10 May 2004 - 03:09


This vulnerability was widely reported long before the actual outbreak, and so could easily have been avoided. Ignorance shouldn't be a defence..

Just so.

We seem to be arguing two completely different and only marginally related subjects in this thread.

I ( and others) have been discussing the fate of the ( presumably guilty) author of the worm.
Leftism has been talking about the impact of said worm due to incompetence/negligence on the part of sysops worldwide ( including his school where, presumably, Lefty is leading a massive student rally which will result in the public lynching of the offending IT personnel...).

One argument hardly impacts the other.
As I see it, the author of the worm, despite it's crude "blunderbuss" construction ( and let's not forget that even a weapon as crude as a blunderbuss can be lethal under the correct circumstances) is completely responsible for his act of computer terrorism.
And, make no mistake, an act of terrorism it was.
To a typically savvy habitue of this forum, perhaps the Sasser worm was a complete non-issue, but it caused widespread damage and aggravation to many,many casual PC users.
You may disdain their naivite all you want, but that doesn't lessen by one whit their right to expect their property to be safe and held sacrosanct.

The kid breached these fundamental legal boundries and should be held accountable.
Period.

Whether his ultimate fate matters at all to another potential script-kiddie, or wheter it deters even one more socially-challenged misfit is immaterial...he did the crime, he can do the time.

[leftism]

Originally posted by J'Pol
Mis-representing again, but now I know it is not your fault, so that's cool.

Not at all. It was a perfectly accurate overview of our discussion.