By Polly Raymond, 5 April 2000 11:00
NEWS This is how the story broke on 6 April 1999: A man has been detained in New Jersey, US accused of creating the Melissa virus that infected corporate email servers across the world last week. David L Smith - a 30 year old programmer - is due to appear in court shortly. If found guilty he could face a $250,000 fine and up to 40 years in prison. Melissa dominated headlines last week when it spread through the world's email servers like wildfire. Experts dubbed the virus the 'fastest spreading' the corporate world has ever seen - security helplines were jammed solid. But a spokesman for security specialists, Network Associates, said even the maximum sentence would not be enough to scare off other virus writers. "It will stir up the community but it won't effect them too much," he said. Matthew Bevan, a former hacker, agreed: "The virus writing community will take it as a challenge. They will start writing viruses more viscous than Melissa." Bevan told Silicon.com he is concerned that Smith may be made a scapegoat to bear the full responsibility for Melissa's creation and mass disruption - when he may have only been guilty of helping the virus to spread.
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