Romanian Court Indicts Accused 'Blaster' Virus Author

[William Knowles <wk () c4i org>]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A38364-2004Jan22.html

The Associated Press
Thursday, January 22, 2004

BUCHAREST, Romania -- A Romanian court has indicted a graduate student
on charges of distributing a variant of the computer-crippling
"Blaster" Internet virus, authorities said Thursday.

Dan Dumitru Ciobanu, 25, was accused of producing the Romanian version
of the worm and infecting 27 computers at a university in northeastern
Romania, said Mihaela Butuca, a court spokeswoman in the city of Iasi,
250 miles northeast of Bucharest.

The Dec. 10 indictment alleges that Ciobanu created a "severe
disturbance" in the computers. The charge carries a penalty of 15
years in prison.

His trial begins Jan. 27 and he is not in custody.

Romanian authorities identified the worm in September, about a month
after the original version and other variants of Blaster had crippled
hundreds of thousands of computers worldwide and forced Maryland's
motor vehicle agency to close for a day.

Like many other viruses, Blaster took advantage of a flaw in the
Windows operating system. It caused computers to mysteriously shut
down and restart.

Authorities in the United States have charged two youths with creating
Blaster variants.

Romania has had little experience in prosecuting computer crimes, in
part because authorities enacted a cybercrime law only last year.



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