Computing readers have reacted angrily to the news that a 19-year-old man has pleaded guilty to infecting thousands of businesses and US government computers with the Blaster B virus.

Jeffrey Lee Parson of Hopkins, Minnesota faces heavy fines and up to 37 months in jail after admitting to unleashing the virus which has attacked more than 48,000 computers in the last year.

Below are a selection of the responses we have received in response to the news.

The sentence should have been tougher. Deterrent is better than cure and extremely stiff sentences would attract headlines all over the world and act as a deterrent to others. How many hours have been lost and millions of pounds have been wasted because of these people? I've got much better things to do with my time than 'cleaning' infected computers?

I would like to see extremely harsh sentences for anyone who creates or passes on a virus, worm or Trojan horse. They ought to be sentenced to at least ten years in prison with no chance of parole and a life-long ban on using computers. Millions suffer because of these idiots. It's time to really put a fright into them.

Damn right he should be punished. Sends out a message to all those merry-making nerds.

I think that these morons who send out these viruses should receive the same types of penalty as any other common thief. This idiot is no different than the thug who hides until after dark and breaks into your home and steals your belongings. By corrupting or otherwise ruining your computer he has cost you financial loss and the feeling of being violated and worrying about identity theft.

Make an example out of him. Maybe the next punk ass script kiddie will think twice if you roast this one. Try him under the homeland security act for cyber terrorism - unlimited jail in maximum security.

Regarding whether or not the sentence should be similar to the creator. I would give him the exact same sentence because it is just as dangerous a virus.

Personally, I think Jeffrey Lee Parson and others are doing the world wide online community a service by keeping anti-virus manufacturers on their toes. Although it may be bad for individuals, organizations and others who use computers, it's a good injection into the online economy via Anti-Virus sales.

Creating viruses to disrupt peoples lives, disrupt small and big business, and costing nations hundreds of millions of dollars in lost productivity is no prank - it is terrorism and must be treated as such!

My take is that people should be less angry at this guy (and other virus-writers) and decide to get some security for their systems. I don't see how you could give a guy who just slapped together a few lines of code as much time in jail as a rapist or murderer.

The internet as it stands is prone to a plethora of problems with the virus's being the most prominent just now. I rather favor a complete overhaul of the entire system. Too many open ports and too many different protocols etc. It's all an open invitation to hackers and cyber nuts. We can do better.

The people who think that the virus writers are 'idiots' have no concept of what is involved in making one. I agree that virus writers should be punished but if they are smart enough to write one, then they are smart enough to continue to use a computer even if they are sentenced with a 'life time ban'.

I think they provide a service to the community by finding post-shipment weaknesses in computer networks, systems and software. We all need to get smarter in developing and deploying self-protected and self-healing computer networks, systems and software - to do less is a cop out for cutting the cost of doing business. Punishment for the guilty as found is not the ultimate solution. We need to start at the source - vulnerable designs and development flaws.

Fines should be stiff against virus authors but people need to realize is this guy is not a real virus author. He took an already existing virus, put his name on it, and sent it out. The regular blaster virus hit hundreds of thousands and this kid only got a handful of machines. He's not the key to the virus, he's just a stupid kid that passed it on.

He's a mischievous kid playing with what he probably views to be a toy. Sentencing this kid to prison would be a travesty of morality and justice. Your respondents who suggest we should throw the book at him obviously don't recall the times I'm sure they themselves did something mischievous that might have or might have not, through circumstance, effected others.

I think the harsher the sentence the better. It will help at least to deter the ?joyriding? class of electronic vandals. For those who think they are doing a service by improving security, does that also mean murderers and thieves do society a service by keeping police on their toes or that having wars is good for tuning up the military and adding to the defense industry coffers?

If buisnesses would have been smart themselves to update regularly with Microsoft these incidents would have never happened. So in turn who?s really the idiot? And I don't think that a 19-year-old should spend 10 years in prison for this crime.

What do you think? Email feedback@computing.co.uk

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