Jail for 'wipe-out' virus creator

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LONDON, England -- A British Web designer has been sentenced to two years in prison for writing one of the world's most destructive viruses which wiped out computers worldwide.

Simon Vallor, 22, was trapped after an FBI tip-off to Scotland Yard.

He received his sentence on Tuesday at Southwark Crown Court, London, after pleading guilty in December to three counts of releasing a computer virus.

Vallor created cyber bugs at his home in North Wales and sent them around the world as e-mails, infecting an estimated 27,000 computers in more than 40 countries.

The worst of his creations was first seen on December 5, 2001 when the e-mails flooded into users' inboxes. As soon as they were opened they infected the complete address list of each user.

In his ruling, Judge Geoffrey Rivlin said the viruses had a "real and frightening destructive capability," and that it "would be absurd to claim Vallor did not intend to cause any harm."

Vallor said he wrote the three "mass mailer" viruses "to see whether he could do it" and if the virus would eventually spread back to him.

Of the three viruses -- "Gokar," "Redesi," and "Admirer" -- "Gokar" spread the most widely and was at one point ranked as the third most prevalent virus of all time.

"Redesi" claimed the attachment was a technical support e-mail from Microsoft Corp., but when opened the attachment would reformat the computer's hard drive.

Vallor was arrested in February 2002 by officers from Scotland Yard's Computer Crime Unit following information received from the Newark Field Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

Computer Crime Unit's Steve Santorelli said: "Virus writers cause huge financial loss to businesses and severe inconvenience to all computer users. The CCU will continue to trace and arrest any individual suspected of writing these types of programs.

"We would ask all computer users to always install and regularly update anti-virus software. You should be particularly suspicious of opening any attachment that comes with an e-mail that you were not expecting."

Rivlin also ordered Vallor's computer to be confiscated.

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