Posted by Virus Bulletin on Aug 6, 2002
Five Israeli teenagers have been charged in connection with writing and disseminating W32/Goner.
According to Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz, five youngsters have been charged with wilful damage to personal and business property by the writing and dissemination of computer viruses, specifically W32/Goner. The youths were arrested in December 2001, just days after the initial virus outbreak. While one of the teenagers has been charged with writing W32/Goner, the other four were charged with disseminating it.
The indictment states that, amongst the damage caused, the virus caused servers to crash at organizations including NASA, a consulting company in New Jersey, Israeli company Radvision, and the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya.
The charging of this group comes a mere eight months after their crime, VB hopes it wont be another two and a half years before they receive their sentencing... Melissa author David Smith whose sentencing came three years after he was charged.
For more on W32/Goner see:
