I vote the culprit gets as many man-hours of jail as he has cost the world community in lost productivity dealing with it....my guess is he'll be a few hundred years beyond his use-by date...

more from that article:

The virus apparently was disguised so that anyone who clicked on a link purporting to show a sexually graphic picture became infected with the self-replicating worm, which then spread itself to other e-mail addresses.
Internet service provider Easynews.com of Phoenix said in a statement that the FBI contacted it Thursday, alleging that someone had used its Usenet server to upload the picture on Aug. 18. Easynews said it refused to provide any information until a faxed subpoena arrived from the FBI on Friday.
The header of the original message presents the sender’s address as Misiko @ dot.com. It was posted to six newsgroups, the names of some of which suggested they featured pornographic images. Easynews’ technology director, Michael Minor, said it appeared that the culprit used a stolen credit card to create the account from which the virus was posted.
^^^
Header information from the original Usenet message suspected of carrying the Sobig.F virus:
Path: news.easynews.com!core-easynews!newsfeed1.easynews.com!easynews.com!easynews!easynews-local!news.easynews.com.POSTED!not-for-mail From: Misiko Newsgroups: alt.binaries.amp, alt.binaries.boneless, alt.binaries.nl, alt.binaries.pictures.chimera, alt.binaries.pictures.erotica, alt.binaries.pictures.erotica.amateur.female Subject: Nice, who has more of it? DSC-00465.jpeg Message-ID: Organization: Misiko X-Newsreader: MicroPlanet Gravity v2.50 Lines: 2815 X-Complaints-To: abuse @ easynews.com X-Complaints-Info: Please be sure to forward a copy of ALL headers otherwise we will be unable to process your complaint properly. Date: Mon, 18 Aug 2003 19:46:19 GMT Xref: core-easynews alt.binaries.amp:2476089 alt.binaries.boneless:29017892 alt.binaries.nl:32597838 alt.binaries.pictures.chimera:2199579 alt.binaries.pictures.erotica:10555867 alt.binaries.pictures.erotica.amateur.female:3953364 X-Received-Date: Mon, 18 Aug 2003 12:45:13 MST (news.easynews.com)

goodmorphing thinks this must not be much information at all since they haven't caught the guy.
[Message Edited]

im running pretty much the same as IPlural and have had no problems there are symantec scanners for the two newest viruses/worms on downloads.com they scan and remove and traces of these virues here r the links hope it can help!!!!!

this 1 is for W32.Sobig.F@mm: http://download.com.com/3000-2092-10221650.html



and this 1 is for W32.Blaster.Worm: http://download.com.com/3000-2092-10219756.html


the W32.Sobig.F@mm virus is the emailing everyone.. i hope i could be of a help

cool adni18! not cool you got hit but cool you found something that fixed you up

from MSN news:

FBI agents have subpoenaed an Arizona company for clues to the origins of a fast-spreading computer virus that slowed e-mail systems worldwide this week and threatened to launch an attack that was averted. The virus is programmed to try another attack Sunday, but experts say the attack has already been blocked.

THE VIRUS, the “F” variant of “Sobig,” contained instructions to launch an attack Friday afternoon, but experts were able to identify and block most of the key computers needed as accomplices.

Sobig was programmed to try again Sunday, “but I think it’s really mitigated,” said Chris Rouland, vice president for research and development at Internet Security Systems Inc. “All the network operators are aware they need to block these (Internet addresses) now.”

I have started to format my computer and I am making a new clean install, so do not search for me, I will come sometimes with my laptop and I will reinstall my main machine in same time.

Too many things happend on my pc recently to not do something, I could not uninstall Norton, it would not let me and some other things too

#87

I have done this too Alexandrie, two days ago I have format and reinstall everything!!!

It took me one day to do all those installations!

But this was the last time, now I have a drive copy, which means that if I see something strange happening in my computer, I can replace the C drive in less than some minutes with a fresh copy of everything I am using, system, drivers, software, everything will be like it was 2 days ago, fresh and fast!

System restore doesn't work all the times and it is not the same.

Norton Ghost is too complicated for me to use it.

Acronis is the best, nice and friendly interface and only 2 step procedure!!! One to back-up everything and one to restore everything! Though it is not free

Interesting? Here is the link of Acronis: http://www.acronis.com/products/trueimage/

Take care everyone!

Wow... I am afraid to check my mail. I'll sign onto my site to see if my mail boxes are full.

Found out why I haven't had any. My ISP has been removing them as they arrive! Good old BTInternet. Now if all ISPs did the same, these viruses would never get off the ground.

Nearly all of the virii coming to me are on one email account that I almost never have used.....infact only once and that was since they started......my most 'public' email addy.....easily found via googling 'Jafo' is virtually free of 'em.......says a lot for the actual 'source' of the infection....

Hmm, someone with my alternate e-mail address has the virus. Today I've had a dozen (cleaned) e-mails from...me!

You are right IPlural it is getting worse! >
More than 10.000 e-mails daily is something that has started to make me mad! >
I am stoping them and deleting them to my provider's server, but it is still huge time wasting!