14-year-old 'downed Microsoft homepage for four hours'

A teenage virus writer has been sentenced to three years' probation for committing a denial-of-service attack on Microsoft's homepage.

The teenager released the RPCSDBOT Trojan in August 2003, creating a botnet which waged a DDoS attack on Microsoft, bringing down Redmond's website for around four hours.

Due to the virus writer's juvenile status, no information about him or her can be given, although the DDoS attacker was 14 at the time the RPCSDBOT Trojan was released, according to reports.

The youth was charged with committing an act of juvenile delinquency and, in addition to three years' probation, will have to complete 300 hours of community service. The judge also recommended that he or she has mental health counselling.

The RPCSDBOT worm that the youngster created exploited the same software hole in the Windows OS as the Blaster worm, which saw another teenage virus writer in the dock.

Jeffrey Lee Parson, now 19, was sentenced earlier this year for created the Blaster.B variant. He received an 18-month prison sentence.