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CurzTech News Network

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from Star Publications (Malaysia) on Wednesday, March 26, 2003

STOCKHOLM: Swedish police said Tuesday they detained the creator of a computer virus that clogged thousands of e-mail servers in 21 countries last week.The suspect, whose name and age were not released, was believed to be the first virus creator caught in the cyber-savvy Scandinavian country of 8.9 million residents.

Police said the virus, dubbed Ganda, spread to thousands of computers worldwide last week, reproducing itself by sending out e-mail messages offering screensavers with names like "Spy pics" and "Go USA."

A message hidden in the virus helped Swedish investigators trace the suspect to the town of Haernoesand, 400 kilometres north of the capital, Stockholm, police spokesman Torbjoern Ull said.

Ull said the man confessed to creating and spreading the virus after police raided his home Friday. He was not arrested, but prosecutor Kristina Brolin said she would file charges of computer trespassing and inflicting damage, which carries a maximum sentence of four years in prison.

In the message, which was sent to several newspapers in Sweden, the suspect complained about the Swedish educational system, Ull said.

"He feels he has been unfairly treated during his school days and he wants to alert the media to his problems," Ull said.

Per Hellqvist, a spokesman for the Swedish unit of Internet security company Symantec Corp, said the virus had a limited reach, perhaps because some of the text was in Swedish.

"This is the first time this type of crime is prosecuted in Sweden. It will be interesting to see how Swedish law is implemented," Hellqvist said.

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