Two UK computer hackers who were involved in the dissemination of the “TK” computer worm in 2003 were given sentences of six months and three months in jail at Newcastle Crown Court on Friday.
The worm did not cause a lot of damage (losses have been estimated at around £15,000) but it had the ability to do so, if its creators had chosen to use it in that way. The men admitted conspiracy to cause unauthorised modification of computers with intent.
According to the Press Association, Judge Beatrice Bolton accepted that the men had become involved for “power and ego” rather than for financial reasons, but ruled that prison sentences were necessary.
"It's to your credit that you did not use the worm for the dreadful purposes you could have, but you demonstrated the power it had over a large number of computers," she said.
Jordan Bradley, 22, of Darlington, was given a sentence of three months, while Andrew Harvey, 24, from Belmont, County Durham, faces six months in jail.
The pair were arrested in February 2003, after an international investigation into the source of the worm. A US man was also arrested after members of the UK's National Hi-Tech Crime Unit (NHTCU) and the Computer and Technology Crime Hi-Tech Response Team (CATCH), based in Southern California, worked together to identify international hacking group "Thr34t-Krew" as being behind the worm.
The US man, Raymond Steigerwalt, was sentenced in June to 21 months in prison and ordered to recompense the US Defence Department (whose computers were targeted by the worm) to the tune of $12,000.
