Dutch Police Make Kournikova Virus Arrest

[Guest guest]

http://www.foxnews.com/national/021401/kourni.sml

--

" The most valuable thing in the world is the truth; in fact it is so

valuable

that it is often defended by a bodyguard of lies. " Winston Churchill.

US

WORLD

MARKETWIRE

POLITICS

FOX LIFE

VIEWS

SPORTS

ON THE AIR

VIDEO

Dutch Police Make Kournikova Virus Arrest

Wednesday, February 14, 2001

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands

Dutch police arrested a computer hacker Wednesday who claimed he wrote the Kournikova computer virus that snarled e-mail around the world this week, officials said.

The 20-year-old from the northern province of Friesland turned himself in and was arrested, police spokesman Rambonnet told The Associated Press. He was detained on suspicion of damaging computer programs and property. His identity was withheld under Dutch privacy laws.

Rambonnet said the maximum penalty for damaging property is four years in jail. The Kournikova virus backed up e-mail systems and hundreds of thousands of computers from Australia to the United States. The virus was traced by the Excite@Home computer network to a Dutch subscriber. Dutch police initially said they had no reason to investigate it. On Tuesday, a person identifying himself as OnTheFLy claimed responsibility on an Internet site for writing and spreading the virus, saying it was meant as a warning to Internet users to tighten security. "I admit writing the virus," the Feb. 13 letter read. "I never wanted to harm the people [who] open the attachment. But after all it's their own fault they got infected," it said. The virus arrives as an e-mail attachment named "Kournikova.jpg.vbs" and carries the message "Hi: Check This!" It promises to deliver a picture of the teen-age tennis star, but does not actually contain a photo. When the user clicks on the attachment, the virus is released, worming its way into address books and sending itself to everyone on the list, clogging e-mail servers. The virus spread rapidly Monday, slowing down e-mail systems and forcing some companies to shut down e-mail altogether. Security experts said it does not permanently damage computers. The outbreak was largely contained by Tuesday. The virus failed to infect as many computers in Asia as it did in Europe and the United States. In the 1980s, hackers reportedly routed computer raids on U.S.

government systems through the Netherlands to make tracing and

prosecution difficult. At the time there was no law against

Internet crimes.

The Dutch set up a special unit of dozens of cyber detectives in

1999, after adopting legislation that enabled them to fight online

crime.

FOX FAST LINKS

OnTheFly's Homepage

FOX News does not endorse content on external sites.

Privacy Statement

For FoxNews.com comments write to comments@...;

For Fox News Channel comments write to comments@...

© Associated Press. All rights reserved.

This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

© News Digital Media 2000. All rights reserved.