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Technology - Reuters

Worm Suspect Said Just a Normal, Fun-Loving Teen

Sat Aug 30, 6:28 PM ET

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By Todd Melby

HOPKINS, Minn. (Reuters) - A friend of a Minnesota high school student charged with unleashing a new strain of the Blaster Internet worm that infected computers around the world described him on Saturday as "just a kid" who is likely innocent.

Mike Heldt, who once worked with suspect Jeffrey Lee Parson, 18, at a local movie theater, told Reuters he and Parson like to shoot billiards, rent movies, play video games and "just sit around and joke like other kids."

"I don't think he's really a hacker," said Heldt, an 18-year-old who works the overnight shift at a local gas station and lives in the same working-class neighborhood as Parson. "He's just a kid that got into something that's bigger than he is, that's all."

But computer security specialists, who are still searching for the creator of the worm, said altering a worm is not as hard as creating one.

"It was a very deliberate act," said Vincent Weafer, senior director of Symantec Security Response. "But it wasn't complex. It doesn't take a huge amount of knowledge."

According to court documents, the 6-foot-4 (1.9-meter), 320-pound (145 kg) Parson has admitted creating a variant of the Blaster, a self-replicating worm that bores through a Windows security hole, harnessing computers to launch concerted data attacks via the Internet on a Microsoft Corp. technical service Web site.

Microsoft, which says Blaster has caused millions of dollars of damage, helped authorities in the case.

HOUSE ARREST

Parson was arrested on Friday and charged with one count of intentionally causing or attempting to cause damage to a computer. He faces a maximum of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine if convicted.

"This young man ... was very sophisticated in his understanding of computers," said U.S. Attorney Tom Heffelfinger of Minnesota.

Hours after being charged, Parson, along with Heldt, watched the news at his home in Hopkins, a western suburb of Minneapolis, where he is under house arrest and required to wear an electronic monitoring device.

A friend of Parson's mother was sympathetic.

"They're really nice people," said Maureen Carriveau, a neighbor of the Parson family. "This has to be so heartbreaking. Every parent wants the best for their kids."

But some local residents were upset.

"It screws up everything," said Leanne Damke, who lives down the street from Parson. The 32-year-old mother of two says she had trouble getting medication from a pharmacy due to the worm.

"I think he wanted it to get out of hand," she added. "When someone puts something like that on the computer, he's doing it on purpose."

Authorities have removed seven computers from the apartment where Parson lives with his family.

At his appearance on Friday in U.S. Federal Court in St. Paul, Minnesota, Parson wore a faded gray T-shirt, cargo shorts and high-top sneakers. The judge banned him from using the Internet, surfing the World Wide Web or using messaging services.

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