[4441] in cryptography@c2.net mail archive
Suspected Creator Of Melissa Virus Arrested
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Elyn Wollensky)
Fri Apr 2 15:06:12 1999
From: Elyn Wollensky <EWollensky@idgbooks.com>
To: dc-stuff@dis.org, cypherpunks@cyberpass.net, cryptography@c2.net
Cc: Christine Bailey <cbailey@idgbooks.com>,
Eric Newman <ENewman@idgbooks.com>,
Barry Childs-Helton <BChilds@idgbooks.com>,
Diane Puri <DPuri@idgbooks.com>
Date: Fri, 2 Apr 1999 13:35:17 -0500
[I'm only permitting this because of the general interest. I will
accept NO OTHER MELISSA RELATED MESSAGES, PERIOD. --Perry]
http://www.techweb.com/wire/story/TWB19990402S0008
Suspected Creator Of Melissa Virus Arrested (04/02/99, 12:21 p.m. ET) By
Christine Casatelli,
A New Jersey man has been arrested by federal and state officials and
charged with originating the e-mail virus known as Melissa, the Associated
Press reported on Friday.
The man, David L. Smith, 30, of Aberdeen, N.J., was arrested Thursday night
at his brother's house in nearby Eatontown, N.J., said Rita Malley, a
spokeswoman for the New Jersey Attorney General's Office.
Smith originated the virus -- which caused worldwide e-mail disruption this
week -- from his apartment in Aberdeen, Malley said.
Smith was captured with the help of America Online technicians, and a
computer task force composed of federal and state agents, Malley said. He is
being held at the Monmouth County Jail.
Newsgroup-sniffing software from security vendor Network Associates
discovered where the virus was first posted -- at the alt.sex newsgroup.
A search of the file spotted an origin time close to the time it was
published on the newsgroup. Network Associates researchers at the vendor's
Anti-Virus Emergency Response Team (AVERT) lab identified an AOL user with
the moniker "Sky Roket" as the person who first posted the virus.
The Melissa virus, which sends 50 infected e-mail messages with a list of
pornographic sites to recipients named in the end user's address book, first
surfaced late Friday. Late Monday, the inevitable follow-on to the Melissa
virus made its first appearance. Named Papa, this new Excel virus works in a
similar way to the Melissa bug. Papa arrives via e-mail, claiming to be
sent by "all.net" or"Fred Cohen" in the end user's inbox, and then
replicates, mailing itself to the first 60 users in the address book.
Elyn Wollensky
Programming Development Group
IDG Books Technology Publishing
900 Third Avenue
NYC, NY 10022
voice: +1.212.381.4517
fax: +1.212.381.4501
