krvw@SEI.CMU.EDU (Kenneth R. van Wyk) (07/27/89)
Forwarded from various lists: By James Rowley Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON (AP) A Cornell University graduate student blamed for a rogue computer program that infected as many as 6,000 computers with an electronic virus was indicted today on a felony computer-crime charge. Robert Tappan Morris was indicted by a federal grand jury in Syracuse, N.Y., on one count of accessing without authorization at least six computers in which the federal government has an interest. Morris, who has been criticized by a Cornell University commission that investigated last November's computer virus incident, is the first person to be charged under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act of 1986, the Justice Department said in a statement released here. Morris, who is on leave from Cornell, could face a possible five-year sentence and a $250,000 fine if convicted of the charge. He could also be required to pay restitution to universities and military bases where computers were paralyzed by the virus. Morris has told friends he created the virus but didn't intend for it to invade computers around the country. The virus infected as many as 6,000 university and military computers on the nationwide ARPANET network, which is used by universities and military contractors to transmit non-classified data. The network was virtually shut down for several days, although no information stored in computers was lost. The indictment charged that Morris ``intentionally and without authorization'' accessed computers located at the University of California at Berkeley; the National Aeronautics and Space Administration in Moffett Field, Calif.; Purdue University in West Lafayette, Ind.; the U.S. Air Force Logistics Command at Wright Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio, and others not specified. By accessing these computers, Morris ``prevented the authorized use of one or more of these federal interest computers and thereby caused a loss to one or more others'' of more than $1,000, the indictment charged. The indictment did not specify how much damage was caused by the computer virus.