Juvenile sentenced in Microsoft attack

A juvenile was sentenced yesterday in U.S. District Court to probation and community service in connection with a computer worm attack on Microsoft's main Web site.

The juvenile admitted releasing a worm — known as the RPCSDBOT — in August 2003 and then directing infected computers to attack the Microsoft site. The site was shut down for about four hours.

The U.S. Attorney's Office, which prosecuted the case, said federal law prevents it from releasing details about the juvenile, even the defendant's gender. It did say the juvenile was 14 when the crime occurred.

The cyberattack occurred around the same time as another worm attack on Microsoft's Web site. In that case, Jeffrey Lee Parson, created a variant of the Blaster worm that infected about 1,200 Internet addresses. Parson, 19, a Minnesota resident, was sentenced last month to 1½ years in prison.

Initially, authorities wondered whether the two attacks were related, but they were not.

At the juvenile's sentencing yesterday, the juvenile said, "Seventeen months ago, I made the worst mistake I ever made in my life. I did it out of curiosity and did not think I would cause any damage. I am sorry I created problems for people I did not even know."

Judge Robert Lasnik took the juvenile's contrition to heart and replied, "You know what you did was wrong, and you aren't going to do it again."

Lasnik sentenced the teen to three years of probation and required the teen to undergo mental-health counseling and perform 300 hours of community service.

The judge also required the juvenile to update him by letter every six months, describing the community-service activities and how the experience has affected the juvenile.

The U.S. Attorney's Office said yesterday that the investigation of the Blaster worm is continuing.