The
worm did not cause a lot of damage (losses have been estimated at
around £15,000) but it had the ability to do so, if its creators
had chosen to use it in that way. The men admitted conspiracy to
cause unauthorised modification of computers with intent.
According to the Press Association, Judge Beatrice Bolton
accepted that the men had become involved for “power and ego”
rather than for financial reasons, but ruled that prison sentences
were necessary.
"It's to your credit that you did not use the worm for the
dreadful purposes you could have, but you demonstrated the power it
had over a large number of computers," she said.
Jordan Bradley, 22, of Darlington, was given a sentence of three
months, while Andrew Harvey, 24, from Belmont, County Durham, faces
six months in jail.
The pair were arrested in February 2003, after an international
investigation into the source of the worm. A US man was also
arrested after members of the UK's National Hi-Tech Crime Unit
(NHTCU) and the Computer and Technology Crime Hi-Tech Response Team
(CATCH), based in Southern California, worked together to identify
international hacking group "Thr34t-Krew" as being behind the
worm.
The US man, Raymond Steigerwalt, was sentenced in June to 21
months in prison and ordered to recompense the US Defence
Department (whose computers were targeted by the worm) to the tune
of $12,000.
