Kournikova Virus Writer Stands Trial

LEEUWARDEN, NETHERLANDS -- Saying that people should be able to use PCs and the Internet without interference, a Dutch public prosecutor has asked the court here to sentence the 20-year-old maker of the Anna Kournikova e-mail worm to 240 hours of civil service.

In addition, public prosecutor Roelof de Graaf asked the court to not return the defendant's PC and a CD-ROM containing computer viruses.

The defendant, Jan de Wit, turned himself in to the police in his hometown of Sneek, Netherlands, on February 14. A few days earlier, he had posted the e-mail worm to an Internet newsgroup and it then spread worldwide.

De Wit is charged with the spreading of data via a computer network with the intent to cause damage. The crime is punishable by four years in prison and a maximum fine of approximately $243,000.

Unintentional Damage

The fact that no damage claims have been filed with the prosecutor's office is one reason the prosecutor isn't asking for heavier sentencing. However, the FBI in a fax to the prosecutor says it has identified 55 victims of the Kournikova worm with a total damage of $166,827. That claim wasn't specific enough, the prosecutor says.

In his defense, De Wit's lawyer says "there is no convincing evidence" that his client caused any damage or disruption of service. He is asking that De Wit be found not guilty of any crime and his confiscated belongings returned.

De Wit, who seemed nervous during the court session, again admitted to creating the worm using a worm making toolkit. He says he didn't foresee the consequences when he posted the virus using the nickname OnTheFly.

"I didn't know what it [the worm] would do. I just clicked away...I did this without thinking and without overseeing the consequences and without the intent to cause damage to anyone," he says. "I am not a programmer, this was the first time I created something myself."

The accused also admitted to have a fascination with computer viruses. He had been collecting them and had catalogued thousands of viruses and Trojan horses.

"I was fascinated. Such a small program that can create that much damage," he says.

Widely, Quickly Spread

For two days, the virus, under the e-mail guise of an image of Russian tennis star Anna Kournikova, spread like wildfire and infected hundreds of thousands of computers worldwide. Some businesses shut down their e-mail systems as a preventive measure, according to antivirus software vendors.

The Kournikova worm didn't do much damage on a victim's PC. It was programmed to replicate itself via the Outlook address book and set up the PC to visit the Web site of Dutch computer store chain Dynabyte, De Wit's employer. It is also easily thwarted. But economic damage resulted, antivirus experts say.

"Businesses took down their e-mail service and the worm caused a massive amount of traffic. On top of that is the PR problem. A company gets infected and sends out e-mails to all their contacts. Filing a claim would only greaten the embarrassment," says Mikko Hypponen, a manager of antivirus research at F-Secure Corp.

Kournikova still is among the top ten of virus outbreaks, Hypponen says, adding that he doesn't think De Wit should be punished heavily.

"I am not saying that this guy should be sentenced, but it seems a bit unfair compared to people that wrote more destructive viruses that have never been tried because they were not found or because legislation doesn't exist," he says.

The verdict is expected on September 27.