Four Israeli youths in police custody have admitted to creating and spreading the computer worm "Goner'' by e-mail to attack hundreds of users around the world, police said Saturday.
Police arrested the high school students, ages 15 and 16, from the northern city of Nahariya on Friday, said Meir Zohar, the head of the police computer crime squad.
The Internet worm first spread early this month to computers in Europe, especially in France and Germany. American anti-virus companies have reported more than 400 cases of Goner attacks worldwide. An Internet worm can spread to other computers on its own.
The Goner worm appears as an apparently harmless e-mail, with a subject line of ``Hi'' and a note asking the recipient to open an attached screen saver, which affects the computer if downloaded. The worm then spreads to all addresses in the computer's e-mail system and through the instant messaging program ICQ and Internet chat tools.
Israeli police had been investigating the case for about a week, Zohar said. One of the youths had admitted creating the worm and the other three confessed to spreading it, he said.
Under Israeli law, the suspects could face between three and five years in jail if convicted, Zohar said.
News source: Yahoo!/AP
Police arrested the high school students, ages 15 and 16, from the northern city of Nahariya on Friday, said Meir Zohar, the head of the police computer crime squad.
The Internet worm first spread early this month to computers in Europe, especially in France and Germany. American anti-virus companies have reported more than 400 cases of Goner attacks worldwide. An Internet worm can spread to other computers on its own.
The Goner worm appears as an apparently harmless e-mail, with a subject line of ``Hi'' and a note asking the recipient to open an attached screen saver, which affects the computer if downloaded. The worm then spreads to all addresses in the computer's e-mail system and through the instant messaging program ICQ and Internet chat tools.
Israeli police had been investigating the case for about a week, Zohar said. One of the youths had admitted creating the worm and the other three confessed to spreading it, he said.
Under Israeli law, the suspects could face between three and five years in jail if convicted, Zohar said.
News source: Yahoo!/AP
Volume licensees will still be able to buy extra NT Server 4.0 licenses, by "downgrading" from Windows 2000. To do this, companies have to buy a Windows 2000 license for every NT 4.0 licence they want; Microsoft says they can later upgrade to Windows 2000 at no extra cost.
But some companies are loathe to lose their Windows Server NT 4.0 operating system, having invested a great deal of time and effort building operations around it. Even though the product is now five years old, its retirement is not universally popular.
Chris Ogg, President of Canadian consultancy Wireless Island, said a lot of companies he deals with seem to be refusing to retire Windows NT 4.0. "I did so with much regret around August, but so many companies have invested years in getting it just right," he said. "We have one client who is running software which requires Windows NT 4.0.Wwe had to buy Windows 2000 licences then install NT 4.0." Ogg said that the situation is less than ideal.
As sales of Windows NT Server 4.0 are restricted, support will also be gradually downgraded. From 1 January 2003, Microsoft will start charging for hot fixes. Hot fixes will be discontinued altogether 12 months later on 1 January 2004, at which time pay-per-incident and Premier support will also be axed. Online support is due to be stopped on 1 January 2005.
Microsoft caused something of a storm among certified engineers when it originally announced the retirement of Windows NT Server 4.0: the company said engineers would lose their MCSE titles gained under the Windows NT 4.0 track. Following intense lobbying from customers, Microsoft said it would change the certification title to include versions, so that engineers will now be designated as MCSE on Windows NT 4.0, or MCSE on Windows 2000.
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