A New Jersey man has been arrested and charged with creating the Melissa
e-mail virus, according to the office of the New Jersey State Attorney
General. Associated Press is reporting that David L. Smith, 30, of
Aberdeen, was arrested Thursday night at his brother's house in nearby
Eatontown, according to Rita Malley, a spokeswoman for Attorney General
Peter Verniero. The AP report also quotes Malley describing Smith as a
"computer guy" who "originated [Melissa] at his apartment in Aberdeen,
New Jersey." Smith is being held at the Monmouth County Jail. Technicians
from America Online were apparently involved in the state and federal
manhunt, helping trace an AOL account that had been hijacked. Also key
was a controversial serial number encoded surreptitiously by some
Microsoft programs.
Facilitating this high-tech sleuthing, Smith is also supposed to have left his
name in the source code of a file available on the Source of Kaos web
site that was seized this week in Orlando, Florida. Smith's name appeared three separate times in the revision logs of files found in virus toolkits: As David L. Smith, DLS and DA Smith. TIME Digital has
learned that the FBI is keeping the investigation open on the possibility
that it was a two-man operation. Smith is said to be VicodinES; a
suspected accomplice, Alt-F11, has yet to be identified.
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