Second worm suspect investigated

Suspect could face jail time if convicted

A second person is being investigated in connection with the MSBlast worm that caused havoc online last month.

Romanian police confirmed they have a suspect, believed to have released a modified version of the virus.

They have declined to name him, although a computer security company has identified him as 24-year-old Dan Dumitru Ciobanu.

Newly passed Romanian laws mean Mr Ciobanu could face up to 15 years in jail if convicted.

Milder version

Mr Ciobanu is thought to be responsible for creating the "F" version of the MSBlast web worm.

Unlike the original version of the virus, Mr Ciobanu's version is said to have only attacked computers at the Technical University of Iasi, in northeastern Romania.

Text within the virus insulted one of the lecturers at the university and called for him to retire.

Also inside the virus was Mr Ciobanu's online nickname "Enbiei" which helped Romanian police and anti-virus firm BitDefender to track him down.

Suspected virus Jeffrey Lee Parson writer avoids photographers

"We tracked him using the bulletin boards," said Patrick Vicol from BitDefender. "He actually gave his name, not a very smart thing to do."

The "F" version is not thought to have travelled far beyond Romania and was much less virulent than the original MSBlast virus which infected more than 300,000 systems in mid-August.

A police spokesman confirmed they were investigating a suspect but would not reveal his identity.

Two computers that he regularly uses have been confiscated and will soon be analysed for evidence that he unleashed the modified version of the virus.

Copycat arrest

Last week another programmer was arrested for creating and releasing another version of the MSBlast worm.

Jeffrey Lee Parson is thought to be behind the "B" version of MSBlast that infected a few thousand machines.

Mr Parson was tracked down because he too left his online nickname, teekid, in the version of the virus he modified.

If convicted Mr Parson faces up to 10 years in jail and a fine of $250,000. His next court appearance is on 17 September.

Despite the two arrests the creator of the original MSBlast worm remains at large.