Virus writer gaoled for two years

By Steve Malone

Posted on 21 Jan 2003 at 17:56

Simon Vallor, a twenty-two year old web designer, has been sentenced to two years in gaol at Southwark Crown Court, London. His viruses - Gokar, Redesi and Admirer - had infected 27,000 PCs in 42 countries.

The Redesi worm - which purported to from Microsoft warning of cyber-terrorists deleted data from infected users' hard drives while the Gokar worm attempted to overwrite the main page on the Web sites of infected companies.

Vallor, from North Wales pleaded guilty to writing and distributing the viruses. On passing sentence Judge Geoffrey Rivlin told him 'Virus writers are not so-called computer buffs or nerds, they happen to be criminals.'