CompuServe Thread

We have a new law in Texas to deal with people who would create computer virii. Only last week, the first trial under that law took place in Fort Worth. Here is an excerpt from our newspaper, the FORT WORTH STAR TELEGRAM, as it appeared on their teletex service STARTEXT (used without permission, of course): ( 9/20/88- 9:24 pm) Sentencing delayed in computer "virus' case until Oct. 21 From Wednesday's Star-Telegram Sentencing has been scheduled for Oct. 21 for an Irving man convicted Monday of deliberately creating a computer program used to delete records from his company's computer two days after he was fired. Donald Gene Burleson, 40, was to have been sentenced yesterday on his felony conviction of harmful access to a computer with valued loss and damage of more than $2,500. But retired state District Judge John Bradshaw, who presided over Burleson's nine-day jury trial in Fort Worth, delayed sentencing to allow probation officers to prepare a pre-sentencing report on Burleson. Bradshaw said Burleson, who could receive a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison and a $5,000 fine, is a likely candidate for probation as a first-time non-violent offender. "It's just a question of how long and what type of fine and restitution I'll order," he said. Burleson was convicted of creating a computer "virus" — a series of destructive programs, one of which was used to delete records from his company's computer within days after he was fired. Burleson's trial was considered a landmark case because he was the first person tried under a 1985 Texas law prohibiting computer sabotage. It also may have been one of the first such trials in the nation, Bradshaw told jurors after the verdict. Prosecutor Davis McCown said Monday that the verdict proves that computer crime is not impossible to prosecute. "The jury heard the evidence and did what they felt was best," McCown said. "This proves it is not an unprosecutable offense. It may be hard to put a case together, but it's not impossible." Burleson previously lost a $12,000 civil lawsuit to USPA & IRA, the Fort Worth security brokerage and insurance company for which he worked until he was fired for unrelated reasons Sept. 18, 1985, just days before company officials discovered that 168,0 The computer virus was discovered by USPA & IRA employees as they worked feverishly to restore the records, which were deleted sometime after 3 a.m. Sept. 21, 1985, witnesses testified. Although hundreds of computer records and other documents were introduced during the trial, the main issue became the credibility of key witnesses, including Burleson and Duane Benson, a USPA & IRA senior programmer analyst who unraveled the destructive Benson, who spent four days testifying about how he uncovered the scheme, said the destructive programs were created Sept. 2 and Sept. 3, 1985, on Burleson's computer terminal by someone using Burleson's computer password. Burleson and a computer expert he hired contended that the virus and the related delete program could have been created by someone else using Burleson's terminal and password. Burleson contended that he and Benson did not get along and that Benson created the destructive programs to make Burleson look bad and Benson look good when he restored the damaged system.