Teen pleads guilty in hacker case

by Cathy Wurzer, Minnesota Public Radio

A teenage computer hacker in Hopkins faces 1 1/2 to three years and one month in prison after pleading guilty to crippling thousands of computers on the internet last summer. Jeffrey Parsons agreed to the prison time as part of a plea agreement reached with prosecutors yesterday. Parsons may also have to pay millions of dollars in restitution. He admitted to unleashing a version of the "Blaster" internet worm that attacked computers including a Microsoft website. When he was arrested a year ago, prosecutors said they were trying to deliver a message to computer hackers. Morning Edition host Cathy Wurzer spoke with Paul Luehr, the Assistant U.S. Attorney who handled the search and arrest of Parsons. Luehr is now a computer investigations consultant.