Simon Vallor

Infobox Criminal
subject_name = Simon Vallor


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date_of_birth = birth year and age|1980
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alias = Gobo
charge =
conviction = Writing and distributing three computer virusescite web |date=21 January 2003|url = http://www.sophos.com/pressoffice/news/articles/2003/01/va_vallorjail.html|title = Two years jail for UK virus writer who infected 27,000 PCs, Sophos reacts|format = HTML |publisher = sophos| accessdate = 2008-08-23 | last= |quote=]
penalty = Two year custodial sentence
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Simon Vallor aka Gobo is a twenty-two year old web designer from North Wales who, in December 2002, pleaded guilty to writing and distributing three computer viruses. On 21 January 2003 he was sentenced at Southwark Crown Court, London to a two year custodial sentence. He plead guilty to spreading the viruses - Gokar, Redesi and Admirercite web |date=December 23, 2002|url = http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-95768148.html|title = Welsh virus mastermind convicted|format = HTML |publisher = EuropeMedia| accessdate = 2008-08-23 | last= |quote=twenty-two-year-old Simon Vallor of Llandudno in Wales, who pled guilty last week to having most indiscreetly uncorked what prosecutors termed "the third most destructive virus worldwide" at its epidemic height in 2001.

Mr. Vallor owned up to having pumped out three mass e-mails last year - GoKar, Redesi, and Admirer - which, when opened, laced the virus across all the entries in recipients' address] . One virus alone was proven to have infected 27,000 PCs in 42 countries.cite web |date=Dec 21 2002|url = http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/page.cfm?objectid=12472541&method=full&siteid=50082|title = Welsh cyber vandal spread world virus|format = HTML |publisher = The Western Mail| accessdate = 2008-08-23 | last=Rhodri Clark |quote=One virus alone spread to 27,000 computers in 42 different countries, causing incalculable economic damage to businesses.]

entence

Not all countries are treating cybercriminals in the same manner as the UK courts. For example, in The Netherlands in 2001, the author of the Anna Kournikova worm received a punishment of just 150 hours community service, even though his worm spread much quicker and further than Vallor's three viruses combined. Sophos, a company that makes security software, has called for an internationally agreed approach to charging and sentencing virus writers.

References