David Smith, the babyfaced New Jersey man who three years ago unleashed a computer virus named after a Florida stripper and caused an estimated $1.2 billion in damage, has been sentenced in federal court to 20 months in a federal prison and a $5,000 fine.
The former AT&T computer programmer pleaded guilty in December, 1999, to one federal count of knowingly spreading the "Melissa" virus to cause damage.
Smith's attorney, Edward Borden, said he had hoped for no prison time but Judge Joseph Greenaway said the prison term was needed to deter others from committing the same crime.
Smith had faced a maximum sentence of five years imprisonment, a $250,000 fine and restitution, but the judge said he received a lighter sentence because he cooperated with ongoing federal and state investigations.
US Attorney Christopher Christie declined to discuss the probes but said there would be more computer-related prosecutions "in the near future".
Smith, 34, of Aberdeen Township, New Jersey, told Greenaway he had made "a colossal mistake" by spreading the virus, which he named after a stripper he knew Florida, in March 1999.
It infected more than a million computers across the world.
