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Alleged Virus Creator Detained in Sweden

Posted on: Tuesday, 25 March 2003, 06:00 CST

By KARL RITTER

STOCKHOLM, Sweden (AP) -- Swedish police said Tuesday they detained the creator of a computer virus that had tried to trick recipients into opening and spreading it by offering war-related messages.

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

A message hidden in the virus helped Swedish investigators trace the suspect to Haernoesand, 250 miles north of the capital, Stockholm, police spokesman Torbjoern Ull said.

He 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.

The suspect, whose name and age were not released, could face up to four years in prison.

In the message, 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.

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