Virus writer hoisted by his own petard

Disaffected teenage virus writer does little to dispel the myth that all virus writers are disaffected teenagers...

By Chris Holbrook, 18 May 2001 16:25

NEWS A teenage virus writer, known only as Rhape79, has fallen foul of a mass email campaign that is being driven by a variation of the destructive 'Scrambler' virus.
The variation called VBS.Weather.A drives infected users to a Demon-hosted website that contains a link to a Channel 4 TV interview with the teenage virus writer in which his identity is hidden. The virus also mass emails itself by IRC (internet relay chat) and MS Outlook to all email addresses within a user's address book and the rogue teenager's own address. Jack Clark, from AV vendor McAfee, said their software had picked up the virus and he believes it is not especially dangerous. Clark added: "Computer users should already be protected. The only newsworthy thing to report would be the fact that it mass mails a member of the virus exchange group."

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