BOSTON - A Minnesota teenager appeared in federal court in St. Paul Friday to face charges stemming from the release of a variant of the virulent W32.Blaster Internet worm that ravaged computer systems worldwide earlier this month.
Jeffrey Lee Parson, 18, of Hopkins, Minnesota, was arrested by federal law enforcement Friday morning, according to U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) spokesman Bill Murray.
He appeared before federal magistrate Judge Susan Richard Nelson at 2 p.m. CDT Friday at the James R. Dougan Federal Building in St. Paul, Minnesota, according to Deputy Clerk Mike Chutich.
Parson was tracked down by a joint federal task force that involved members of the FBI and U.S. Secret Service, Murray said.
According to a complaint filed at the court, Parson will face one count of intentionally causing or attempting to cause damage to a protected computer in connection with the release of W32.Blaster-B, a variant of the original W32.Blaster-A worm.
That variant appeared on August 14, three days after Blaster-A first appeared, and was nearly identical to the original blaster worm. However, Blaster-B used a different file name, teekids.exe, as opposed to msblast.exe, according to antivirus company Sophos PLC.
Teekid was also an online handle used by Parson, according to the complaint, which was filed in the Western District of Washington in Seattle, according to Chutich.
The 10-page complaint lays out Parson's role in modifying the original Blaster worm and releasing the Blaster-B variant, as well as the process law enforcement used to track the virus back to Parson.
The FBI and the U.S. Attorney's Office scheduled a press conference for Friday afternoon regarding the worm, according to U.S. Attorney John Hartingh in the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Western District of Washington in Seattle.
Further details about the case will be presented then, Hartingh said.
A copy of the complaint obtained by IDG News Service indicates that federal law enforcement first got on the trail of Blaster-B's author by tracking down ownership of an Internet domain, www.t33kid.com, that the Blaster-B worm used to download instructions and report on infected hosts.
That chase led from a San Diego, California, Web wholesale Internet services provider, California Regional Internet Inc., to a small Web hosting provider in Watauga, Texas and, from there, to ISP Time Warner Cable, which provided Parson's father's home broadband account in Minnesota.
Time Warner provided the FBI with the location of Parson's home in Hopkins and federal agents raided that home on August 19, seizing seven computers from the house, according to the complaint.
The results of a forensic analysis of those computers are still pending, but the complaint says that during an interview that day, Parson admitted to modifying the Blaster worm and creating the Blaster-B worm variant, naming it "teekids.exe" after his online name.
Parson further admitted to outfitting the new worm with a backdoor Trojan program, named "Lithium" so that he could reconnect to infected computers.
Blaster-A first appeared on August 11 and exploited a widespread vulnerability in Microsoft Corp.'s Windows operating system.
This whitepaper explains the terminology and concepts behind Data Replication technologies and establishes some sizing rules through worked examples. Learn the new paradigm in disaster tolerance—protect data anywhere.
Download now »
Server virtualization is a popular option for dealing with mounting datacenter costs. Another equally promising approach is the use of an Application Delivery Controller. Citrix NetScaler provides a low-cost way for organizations to reduce their server count and accrue cost savings from a reduction in space, cooling, power and personnel.
Download now »
The emergence of WLANs has created a new breed of security threats to enterprise networks.
Included in HP ProCurve WLAN solutions is security technology that alleviates threats from WLANs through:
* Monitoring wireless activity inside and out of the enterprise
* Classifying WLAN transmissions into harmful and harmless
* Preventing transmissions that pose a security threat to the enterprise network
* Locating participating devices for physical remediation
Effectively address data protection challenges, implementing solutions that help store and protect business–critical data while cutting costs and improving efficiency and reliability.
Download now »
Sign up to receive Security Resource Alerts
This white paper provides guidance on how to develop a strategic approach to managing and monitoring logs, a key function required for compliance with many regulatory mandates and a critical defense against security threats.
Download now! »
Learn about the processes and technologies that support security information management (SIM) operations, as well as the business case for SIM. The series examines different options for implementing SIM and gives you evaluation criteria for selecting the best option for your organization.
Download now! »
Learn the strategies, actions, and capabilities that Best-in-Class organizations employ and technologies they choose to obtain superior performance against various security performance metrics. This report provides guidelines for identifying which security solutions to consume as a MSS and defines best practices for choosing and managing MSSPs.
Download now! »
Recommend This
