Jail, Says the Judge

“If you use the internet to harm people, it will be investigated and you will be punished,” Jeff Sullivan, chief of the criminal division of the U.S. Attorney’s office in Seattle, told reporters.
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He was talking about Jeffrey Lee Parson, 19, who released a variant of the Blaster worm that was used to attack more than 48,000 computers. Parson’s lawyers said that since his arrest, he has made a Seattle school district video warning teens of the dangers of internet vandalism. Parson apologized to the court and to Microsoft, saying, “I know I’ve made a huge mistake and I hurt a lot of people and I feel terrible.” Parson, who was brought in from his home in Hopkins, Minnesota, pleaded guilty to creating a variant of the worm, which infected computers in mid-2003 and targeted computers at Microsoft. Parson said he created his “B” or “teekids” variant of the Blaster worm and used it to access 50 computers, which he then used to launch a broader attack on more than 48,000 computers.

U.S. District Judge Marsha Pechman, however, did not give the Minnesota teen the maximum 37-month sentence, saying Parson wrote malicious software and used it to attack other computers partly because of neglectful upbringing and supervision. Instead, she sentenced him to a year and a half of prison and ordered him to perform community service, pay restitution, and be placed under supervision for three years following the sentence.

Wuss.