TWO British computer hackers who helped to spread a global virus have been jailed.

Andrew Harvey, 24, and Jordan Bradley, 22, were part of a transatlantic conspiracy that spread a “worm” and prompted an international cybercrime inquiry. The worm caused no great damage, but it could have led to widespread disruption had the pair so chosen.

The US Security Services and FBI co-ordinated simultaneous raids on the hacking group, Thr34t Krew, including the homes of Harvey in Sherburn, Co Durham, and Bradley, in Darlington.

Judge Beatrice Bolton told the pair at Newcastle Crown Court: “You demonstrated that two young lads could infect a large number of computers with a worm that was potentially very dangerous.”

From their home computers, as part of the Anglo-American hacking group Thr34t Krew, they set out to cause chaos. Hackers in the US and Britain, communicating through e-mails and chat-rooms, created the TK worm that found its way into home computers, giving remote access to the gang. Harvey accessed a computer in Texas, used it as a server and gained access to 38,000 connected machines.

The pair did chat in e-mails about using the worm to gain credit card details — but there is no evidence that they actually did this. The court was told that they were interested only in the control it gave them.

The pair were arrested after a joint investigation by specialist officers in Britain and the US. The arrests, in 2003, were witnessed by officers from the US Computer and Technology Crime Hi-tech team who flew in from southern California.

Yesterday Harvey was jailed for six months and Bradley for three. They admitted conspiracy to cause unauthorised modifications of computers with intent between December 31, 2001, and February 7, 2003, contrary to the 1977 Criminal Law Act. They accepted that the quantifiable damage that they caused was just under £15,000.

Adrian Waterman, for the prosecution, said: “It is the Crown’s case that this was an agreement to create, release and control malicious software. These defendants are only two of the conspirators; there are others who live in the United States of America.”

The authorities were alerted by Seth Fogey, an American computer consultant. Mr Waterman said: “He found malicious software on his network. He noticed that internet-relayed chat had something to do with the spread of the worm. He had an online chat with a person calling themselves Doom who had told him that the TK worm had been released but that it was not his creation.”

It turned out that Doom was the nickname used by Harvey.

Mr Waterman said that the Crown could not quantify damage “as some of the computers had owners who were not even aware that they were infected. The heart of this worm is not the damage caused but the fact that the worm by its nature provides access to and control of someone else’s computer. The Crown accepts that Bradley was not as centrally involved as Harvey.” The distinction was “the absence of creation on behalf of Bradley”, he said.

The judge told them: “Public business and the computing community must have faith in computers and you demonstrated that two boys can interfere with computers and for a long time get away with it. I have accepted that there was no financial gain or motive, and that has reduced the length of the sentence. You will serve about half of its length in custody and the rest in the community.”

www.timesonline.co.uk/technology
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