Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.

Jeffrey Lee Parson let off lightly Jeffrey Lee Parson, the Minnesota teenager who pleaded guilty to distributing the B variant of the Blaster worm, has been sentenced to 18 months in jail. Prosecutors had called for a jail sentence of 37 months – the maximum sentence under a plea bargain that suggested a sentence of…

Campaign group categorically denies responsibility Campaign group Fathers 4 Justice has categorically denied any connection with a mass-mailing worm discovered this week which purports to support the campaign and places links to the group’s website on the recipient’s desktop. The .A and .B variants of W32/Mirsa each attempt to drop a section of text onto…

‘Substantial’ cash settlement EarthLink Inc. declared victory this week in a court case against two men accused of spamming from its network. The men, Damon DeCrescenzo and David Burstyn, were ordered to stop sending spam and to pay an undisclosed cash settlement to EarthLink Inc. (described by the company’s legal representative as ‘substantial’). EarthLink filed…

Maximum sentence sought for Jeffrey Lee Parson Jeffrey Lee Parson, the Minnesota teenager who pleaded guilty to distributing the B variant of the Blaster worm, is scheduled to be sentenced on Friday. Prosecutors say he should be sentenced to 37 months in prison – the maximum sentence under a plea bargain that suggested a sentence…

Brazilian virus writer reveals all to Finnish magazine A Brazilian software programmer, who proudly claims ‘viruses are my life’ says that he does not want his viruses to spread and that he recommends anti-virus products to his friends. In an interview with Finnish online magazine ITVikko , 32-year-old Marcos Velasco said ‘viruses, hacking and security…

The tables are turned In an unusual turn of events, a US company accused of sending large volumes of unsolicited email has filed a lawsuit against a man who reported their actions to his ISP. New Hampshire firm Atriks alleges that, by branding the firm and its staff as spammers, and reporting the firm’s ‘spamming’…

Spanish authorities detain 37-year-old The Spanish Civil Guard has announced the arrest of a man suspected of writing and distributing a virus capable of covertly spying on recipients via their webcams, as well as stealing banking information. It is alleged that the 37-year-old man ( somewhat more advanced years than the ‘typical’ virus writer –…

Korean cell phone users suffer onslaught of spam Korean cell phone users are being blasted with SMS spam, with 870,000 cases reported to the Korea Information Security Agency (KISA) and Korea’s three mobile communication companies last year. A recent survey conducted by online research firm Embrain revealed that 95.8 per cent of Korean cell phone…

Two spammers sued by the state of Texas The state of Texas is seeking millions of dollars from two men it accuses of sending millions of spam messages. Ryan Samuel Pitylak, a student at the University of Texas, and Mark Stephen Trotter of California are the brains behind three companies – PayPerAction LLC, Leadplex LLC…

3.35 million common shares for sale Anti-virus firm Sybari Software Inc. has set the terms of its planned initial public offering (IPO) in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The company, which filed a registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission in May 2004, plans to sell 3.35 million common shares at…