Virus Author Gets Prison Term

British Web designer, Simon Vallor, was convicted and sentenced to two years in prison for creating and releasing computer 'cyber bug' viruses that infected nearly 27,000 computers in forty countries. The most destructive virus was an email virus that automatically spread by sending an initial email, then sending a flurry of emails to others in the computer's list of email addresses. Vallor claimed that he wrote three email 'mass mailer' type viruses so that he could determine whether he could do it successfully. The three viruses were nicknamed "Gokar," "Redesi," and "Admirer," with "Gokar" the most virulent. Scotland Yard's Computer Crime Unit nabbed Vallor after the London bureau received information about Vallor from the Newark, New Jersey U.S. Field Office of the FBI. In his ruling, Judge Geoffrey Rivlin said the viruses created by Vallor had a "real and frightening destructive capability," and that it "would be absurd to claim Vallor did not intend to cause any harm." Judge Rivlin also ordered that the Court confiscate Vallor's computer.