A 19-year-old Minnesotan has pleaded guity to writing and distributing a version of the Blaster worm. He will be sentenced to 18 to 37 months in prison and potentially millions in fines. The writer of the original Blaster worm is still at large, and at this point it is unlikely he will be found at all.
And so a bored, technically proficient kid who just graduated from high school is slammed with the beefed up hacker laws as a deterrent to future computer criminals. This policy choice of massive fines and long prison sentences is directed at a very small group of people, even smaller considering they must be in the U.S. Is a 37 month sentence really that much more deterrent than, say, 6 months--or for that matter just massive fines? The "Blastermaster" deserves to be punished, and his behavior was certainly harmful. That said, does 37 months feel too harsh to anyone else?