Man Pleads Guilty to Sending Out 'Blaster' Worm

A Minnesota high school senior pleaded guilty Wednesday in federalcourt to unleashing a variant of the "Blaster" Internet worm, whichcrippled more than a million computers last summer.

Jeffrey L. Parson, 19, of Hopkins, Minn., could be sentenced to 18months to three years in prison on his guilty plea to one count ofintentionally causing or attempting to cause damage to a protectedcomputer. He also could be ordered to pay millions of dollars inrestitution, Assistant U.S. Attorney Annette L. Hayes said.

Parson pleaded not guilty after his arrest last August, but toldU.S. District Judge Marsha J. Pechman on Wednesday, "I downloaded theoriginal Blaster worm, modified it and sent it back out on theInternet."

Different versions of the Blaster worm, also known as the LovSanvirus, crippled computer networks worldwide last summer. Parson'svariant launched a distributed denial-of-service attack against aMicrosoft Corp. Windows update Web site as well as personalcomputers. The government estimates that Parson's version affectedmore than 48,000 computers.

"We appreciate the fact that the defendant has acceptedresponsibility for the crime he committed," Microsoft's deputygeneral counsel, Nancy Anderson, said Wednesday.

One of Parson's lawyers, Carol Koller, said that Parson was youngwhen he committed the attacks and that being arrested made himrealize the seriousness of his crime.

"He has been exemplary," she said. "He has not touched a computersince the day of his arrest."

Parson has been out of jail on a $25,000 pretrial bond withelectronic home monitoring. On Wednesday, Pechman -- citing his goodbehavior since the arrest -- ordered him taken off electronic homemonitoring pending sentencing.

Still, Parson cannot leave his home except to go to work, or ifsupervised and approved by the court. The judge declined Koller'srequest to grant him greater freedoms, such as being able to go tothe movies without his parents.

"Mr. Parson is not a normal teenager," Pechman said. "Mr. Parsonisn't going to be like other teenagers, who can take the family car,go to parties, go to the beach. That's not the way it's going to be."