Individuals who develop and release this type of malware
can be prosecuted under section 1030, along with various state statutes. The CFAA
criminalizes the activity of knowingly causing the transmission of a program, information,
code, or command, and as a result of such conduct, intentionally causing damage
without authorization to a protected computer.
A recent attack in Louisiana shows how worms can cause damage to users, but not
only in the more typical e-mail attachment delivery that we??™ve been so accustomed to.
This case, United States v. Jeansonne, involved users who subscribe to WebTV services,
which allow Internet capabilities to be executed over normal television connections.
The hacker sent an e-mail to these subscribers that contained a malicious worm.
When users opened the e-mail, the worm reset their Internet dial-in number to ???9-1-1,???
which is the dial sequence that dispatches emergency personnel to the location of the
call. Several areas from New York to Los Angeles experienced these false 9-1-1 calls. The
trick that the hacker used was an executable worm. When it was launched, the users
thought a simple display change was being made to their monitor, such as a color setting.
In reality, the dial-in configuration setting was being altered.
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