A 24-year-old Romanian man, accused of unleashing an Internet worm called "Blaster.F", has been charged with cybercrime offences carrying up to 15 years in prison.
Police said today that Dan Dumitru Ciobanu had admitted spreading the virus, a low-grade variant of the highly damaging Blaster worm, but had told investigators it was an accident.
Ciobanu's arrest last week followed that of an American teenager accused of creating another Blaster strain.
Romania's tough new cybercrime law, which covers online fraud, hacking and virus-writing, carries a sentence of three to 15 years, more than twice the maximum sentence for rape.
"He has been charged with illegal and major disturbing of informatics systems and for holding illegal software," Liviu Zamfirescu, a police officer from the suspect's home city of Iasi in the northeast, told Reuters.
A police statement said Ciobanu admitted releasing the virus onto the Web when he tested it on his computer while online.
"Ciobanu initially denied he modified the virus, but later he admitted he modified the virus by switching the names of the folders...and also changed the original message into the Romanian language," the statement said.
Ciobanu is not in custody. No date has been set for his trial.
The original Blaster worm, considered one of the most damaging virus outbreaks ever, surfaced last month. It implanted itself on over half a million PCs that run the latest versions of the Microsoft Windows operating system.
The mastermind behind Blaster remains at large. Experts have warned the code is readily available online where it can be modified and re-released.
Security and law enforcement officials have called for tough justice in prosecuting virus writers in light of a recent surge in viruses and Internet worms capable of bogging down Internet connections and knocking corporate computer systems offline.
American teenager Jeffrey Lee Parson was arrested last month on charges he created and distributed another toned-down Blaster variant, known as Blaster.B. He faces imprisonment of 10 years and a $250,000 fine if convicted.
Anti-virus experts said Blaster.F had done little damage.