[ISN] Romanian Court Indicts Accused 'Blaster' Virus Author

From: William Knowles (wk@private)
Date: Fri Jan 23 2004 - 08:02:38 PST

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    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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