Computer users who spread virus jailed

Published on Saturday 8 October 2005 01:47

TWO computer buffs have been jailed after their attempts to create their own secure internet chatroom sparked off a global cyber crime investigation.

In a bid to make their own internet chatroom safer, Andrew Harvey and Jordan Bradley used a computer virus which then replicated itself and affected thousands of computers around the world.

A court yesterday accepted that the pair did not use the TK worm virus, or its capabilities, for any "nefarious" purposes, but their involvement in its use helped it spread worldwide and warranted jail sentences.

Bradley, now 22, of Sherburn, County Durham, and Harvey, now 24, of Darlington, County Durham, both admitted conspiracy to cause unauthorised modification of computers with intent between December 2001 and February 2003.

Following an investigation by officers in the UK and in the United States, Bradley and Harvey were arrested in February 2003.

Raymond Steigerwalt, 21, from Indiana in the US, was also arrested in 2003. He was sentenced in June to 21 months in jail and ordered to pay $12,000 (6,800) to the US Defence Department, some of whose computers were compromised by the worm.

Once connected to the internet, a computer infected with the worm could be accessed and controlled by hackers.

Judge Beatrice Bolton told Harvey and Bradley that a custodial sentence had to be imposed to serve as a public warning. She jailed Harvey for six months and Bradley for three months.

She told the pair: "I accept the reason for this worm activity is power and ego, to see how far you could get.

"However, young men like you have to be deterred from committing this kind of offence."