On August 12, 2004, Jeffrey Lee Parson appeared before a judge in Seattle, Washington, admitting to having created the B variant of the Blaster worm. Known also as the “teekids” variant, it exploited nearly 50,000 computers on the Internet in 2003. In January 2005, Parson was sent to jail for 18 months. He was also ordered to put in 10 months of community service after his release. The judge said that she was sentencing him at the lighter end of the potential jail-term range, because though Parson was 18 when he launched his cyber attack, he was emotionally immature. If the judge wanted to be tougher, Parson could have faced a jail term of 10 years and a $250,000 fine.

See Also: Blaster Worm; HackersÂ’ Psychological Profile; Malware; Worm.