Web mag retracts worm scoop after hoax revelation

In a bizarre chain of online hoaxing, deception and gullibility, an Internet news site published - then retracted - a story that claimed Kashmiri separatists were behind the spread of last month's SQL Slammer Internet worm.

The United States Web site of Computerworld magazine has published an article by journalist Dan Verton claiming he had based his piece on an e-mail exchange with 'Abu Mujahid', an apparent member of Pakistan-based Harkat-ul-Mujahideen. Verton wrote that Mujahid claimed the group, which has been linked to al-Qaeda, had unleashed the January 25 worm attack.

A four-year staff writer for Computerworld and a former Marine intelligence analyst, Verton thought he had a scoop and wrote that Harkat had released the worm 'as part of a 'cyber jihad' aimed at creating fear and uncertainty on the Internet'. Experts have been unable to trace the origin of the SQL Slammer worm.

But Mujahid was, in fact, Brian McWilliams, 43, a freelance journalist from New Hampshire, whose employers include Salon.com and Wired News. He says he regrets creating the hoax, which he described as 'a bungled experiment.'

'My goal was to learn whether truth is the first casualty in cyber-war. This was arguably a serious lapse in judgment on my part, especially since I work as a journalist and strive to report the truth.'

On his Web site, McWilliams wrote that he got carried away with a plan he originally designed to investigate online recruitment of radical groups.

'At the start, I absolutely did not intend the site as a honeypot for gullible journalists,' he said.