Would maybe a lifetime of working at a helpdesk be more appropriate?

Maybe. Though I think that a lifetime spending re-installing PC's that failed because of his "work" would even be more appropriate.

I believe this person just downloaded the source for the bug and modified it and is not the person who originally wrote it.

(rousing roar and round of applause)

Strange, isn't it, that the rest of the world gets the punishment for this idiot's actions.

The guy has issues. I actually feel sorry for him. What good would jailing someone like that for 10 years do?

Mind you if it had been in the UK he'd have got 20 years while the murderers and rapists go free

It seems proportional to me. I know it's not a fashionable point of view but in my opinion these tech crimes don't get close to the seriousness of violent offences, thefts, drink driving and so forth. Most of them are the IT equivalent of antisocial behaviour, and on that scale 1 1/2 yrs in jail is a perfectly reasonable - even rather strong - response.

Personally, I'm far more comfortable with having my firewall bombarded with DoS attacks or my mailbox filled with trojans than I am with having my safety threatened when I walk around town at night. I'd prefer for sentancing to reflect that (which it rarely does).

Rob

correct.. this was not the original worm designer.. he simply added a crappy payload to the original worm.. Everyone I've talked to in the white/black hat community in MN said he was a nobody. A simple scapegoat for the media to latch onto.

I agree with you in principle and probably in reality, but think of the amount of work he created for IT departments all over the world -- time that could have been better spent doing productive things. I'm sure it had an enormous impact on productivity. Which would make the notion of a proportional punishment unwieldy, I think.

I don't have a problem with the 1.5 years. I just think it should be in "federal pound-me-in-the-ass prison." Geeks everywhere would appreciate it if the sentence was handed down in that specific verbiage.

but think of the amount of work he created for IT departments all over the world

Well... somebody did, actually:

He will still have to pay restitution to Microsoft and to people whose computers were affected in an amount to be determined at a hearing next month.


He (or, actually, his parents as he is a minor) will be on the hook for hundreds of thousands of dollars. They're gonna lose everything...

tanstaafl.

Interesting... I understand he should restitute affected users, but Microsoft getting paid for having released expensive SW a kid can compromise!?