Computer Virus Suspect Charged, Released

ByABC News
February 15, 2001, 8:14 AM

A M S T E R D A M, Netherlands, Feb. 15 -- Police on Wednesday arrested the hacker known as OnTheFly, a 20-year-old man who claims he wrotea computer virus that backed up e-mail systems worldwide bypurporting to offer a photograph of tennis star Anna Kournikova.

Authorities charged him with damaging private property andcomputer programs, and sent the man home with his parents, sayingthe offense didnt warrant holding him. A prosecutor will decidelater whether to seek a jail sentence or a fine.

The offenses with which he has been charged arent enough tohold him, said police spokesman Robert Rambonnet, adding thatthey carry up to a four-year sentence.

The mans name was withheld under Dutch privacy regulations, buthe was identified as a resident of the small town of Sneek, 60miles northeast of Amsterdam.

Its up to the public prosecutors whether and for what heshould be punished, said Peter Boomsma, the police spokesman inSneek. A district court was expected to hear the case in a fewweeks.

Dutch Treat?

Boomsma said the man was released on his own recognizance; it isordinary practice in the Netherlands to let people go until trial.

The discovery harked back to the 1980s when the Netherlandsgained a reputation as a virtual transit point for hackers tryingto break into U.S. government computer systems.

In 1999, the national police set up a special unit of dozens ofcyber detectives, but they were apparently clueless that a Dutchmanwas to blame for the most widespread Internet bug in nearly a year.

In a letter posted on the Internet on Tuesday admittingresponsibility, the computer buff said he copied the worm froma program he found on the Internet, because I dont know anyprogramming languages.

A police statement indicated the suspect had altered the bug,but didnt realize how much havoc he would create when he sent itscurrying around the world Sunday, feeding off a computers addressbook to spread from one victim to the next.