Nintendo DS Trojan Author

You have to wonder about the intellect and morals of some people. Some guy who calls himself DarkFader decided to copycat the first Sony PSP Trojan and create one of his own targeting the Nintendo DS handheld. The DSBrick Trojan deletes firmware essential for operation of the Nintendo DS.

DarkFader released the unsigned code anonymously to various IRC channels and at least one forum. By doing so, DarkFader deliberately and intentionally damaged other people's property and ruined his apparently undeserved reputation as a respected homebrew developer.

The Nintendo DS handheld retails for about $120 in the U.S. so replacing a damaged system can be pricey. Fortunately, in some cases the damage may be recoverable. According to antivirus vendor Trend Micro, "If you use the FlashMe firmware replacement for the Nintendo DS you can recover from this deadly attack by booting up the system. Hold "A+B+START+SELECT" then load the firmware from a flashcart other than your SuperCard (as it's most likely been destroyed)."

But if that doesn't work, perhaps you can get the DSBrick author to fund the replacement costs. It seems the negative fallout of the DSBrick Trojan caused him to issue a public apology on his website, http://darkfader.net. This domain is registered by gandi.net and a whois run at http://www.gandi.net/ reveals that darkfader.net is registered under the name Rafael Vuijk of the Netherlands.

Of course, whois information can be fake and so anyone wishing to pursue legal action against DarkFader should first verify that the registered name and address truly are that of the perpetrator.