Kournikova virus writer loses appeal
Source: IDG.co.nz
A Dutch appeals court has upheld the conviction of the 22-year-old man who created and unleashed the Anna Kournikova email worm last year.
Jan de Wit of Sneek, Netherlands, was sentenced to 150 hours of community service by the appeals court in Leeuwarden, Netherlands, for creating and sending out the email worm. The verdict is identical to the one handed down by the Leeuwarden district court in September last year.
"I had hoped he would be found not guilty," says Theo Jansen, De Wit's lawyer. "My client never intended to do any damage and no damage was ever proven."
No damage claims were filed with the prosecutor's office, but the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) did identify 55 victims of the Kournikova worm with a total damage of $US166,827.
De Wit used a worm-making toolkit to create a worm that, under the guise of an email image of Russian tennis star Anna Kournikova, spread like wildfire for two days in February 2001.
