Virus Writer Turns Himself In

A 20-year-old man has turned himself in to police, identifying himself as the author of the so-called Anna Kournikova virus. The man was arrested in the Dutch province of Friesland, according to police spokesperson Robert Rambonnet.

"He was arrested, but later on released again. He made a statement about his actions, what he had done, how he made the virus and published it on the Internet," says Rambonnet, adding that the man's computer equipment had been confiscated.

"He made a virus to prove how simple it was to make a virus, and how vulnerable computers are for viruses," he adds.

Rambonnet would give no further details about the man's identity or occupation, other than to say he is a resident of the town of Sneek.

In all likelihood he is the same person who took responsibility for the virus in a Web posting Tuesday, identifying himself by the user name "OnTheFly," Rambonnet says.

"I didn't do it for fun," the posting says. "I never wanted to harm the people [who] opened the attachment. But after all: it's their own fault they got infected with the AnnaKournikova virus, OnTheFly virus or whatever they call it."

E-mail messages to OnTheFly's address were returned with an error message saying the account had been disabled. The Internet service provider @Home Benelux BV, host of the address, is currently investigating whether OnTheFly is indeed one of its users, says spokesperson Marieke van Kruiningen.

The Visual Basic script virus is spread via e-mail carrying an attachment masquerading as a JPEG image of Russian tennis star Anna Kournikova. If activated, it does not destroy or corrupt files, but has clogged e-mail systems with the sheer number of messages it generates in replicating itself.

The OnTheFly posting laid some of the responsibility at the tennis player's feet. "Just because I am a big fan of her. She deserves some attention, doesn't she??" it says, and, "Maybe this is also Anna's blame, she is so pretty."

(For more information on the virus, see "How to Trick the Anna Worm.")