Security news
Security news30 June 2004
Finnish police charge suspected virus author, Sophos comments
Police in Finland have announced that a man who lives in the city of Tampere has been charged in connection with writing and distributing an email-aware virus.
The Finnish Central Criminal Police claim that the virus was mass-mailed to computer users in Finland in January 2004 by the man, who is in his twenties.
It is believed the virus may not have worked properly due to a bug in its code which prevented it from spreading to other computer users.
The arrest in Finland follows a series of other developments in the battle between the computer crime authorities and suspected virus authors. A Hungarian teenager has been convicted of spreading viruses, a suspected Trojan horse author arrested in Taiwan, and Sven Jaschan was apprehended by police in Germany in connection with the Sasser and Netsky worms.
"All virus writers should ask themselves: is it really worth the risk?" said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant for Sophos. "Some virus writers may create malware to show off to their friends, and others to steal information or cause mayhem. Whatever their reason it's time they thought long and hard about what the consequences might be if they get caught."
In the past virus writers such as David L Smith, Simon Vallor and Christopher Pile have been sentenced to jail for damage caused by their malicious code.
