Sasser suspect arrested in Germany

[Jari Lehtonen]

From www.neowin.net:

"An 18-year-old high school student has been arrested in Germany on
suspicion of creating the Sasser Internet worm, police say. The worm
spread through an estimated 18 million computers across the world last
week, continually shutting down and rebooting them.

Police say the man was arrested in the northern German town of
Rotenburg. Investigators were searching his parents' home, according
to the German newspaper Bild. No further details have been given about
the suspect, who was arrested on Friday.

The Sasser worm quickly spread worldwide after its first appearance on
1 May. Some businesses were forced to shut temporarily so they could
clear their systems and update anti-virus protection. Hospitals,
banks, airlines, government agencies and many home users were
affected. The worm attacks recent versions of Microsoft's Windows
operating systems - Windows 2000, Windows Server 2003 and Windows XP.

Experts say it apparently does no lasting harm. But although the worst
of the outbreak is over, it is thought the worm will never entirely
disappear, and that future versions may be far more damaging."

 

[Jari Lehtonen]

From www.neowin.net:

"An 18-year-old high school student has been arrested in Germany on
suspicion of creating the Sasser Internet worm, police say.

And the latest news tell that he has confessed.

Jari

 

[Jan-Sebastian Winckelmann]

And the latest news tell that he has confessed.

And yesterday they arrested a 21-year-old unemployed man in
Lörrach, Germany, for creating Phatbot. He already confessed ...

 

[NorthernLights]

They was kinda fast ! Anyone has information on how he has been discovered ?

 

[Anon]

From www.neowin.net:

"An 18-year-old high school student has been arrested in Germany on
suspicion of creating the Sasser Internet worm, police say. The worm
spread through an estimated 18 million computers across the world last
week, continually shutting down and rebooting them.

If they send him to jail he will need his own personal firewall and
virus checker.

A

 

[Gerard Coorne]

They was kinda fast ! Anyone has information on how he has been discovered ?

Der Spiegel reports -
http://www.spiegel.de/spiegel/0,1518,299028,00.html -
that the author of Sasser also created the worm Netsky.ac in the code
of which he embedded the message "Do you know that we have programmed
the sasser virus?!? Yeah, that's true." which helped the experts from
Microsoft (US) to discover him.

G.C.

 

[Mikep187]

They was kinda fast ! Anyone has information on how he has been discovered ?

According to cnet.com someone came forward and gave information to the
authorities. I hope they use the guy they caught to catch the rest
of those guys involved with sasser and the other viruses they wrote.

 

[Gabriele Neukam]

On that special day, Anon, ([email protected]) said...

If they send him to jail he will need his own personal firewall and
virus checker.

Germans don't send offenders into jail that easily. They will first have
to pay something. Say: 180 days of 30 EUR each, that sums up to 5400
EUR, or whatever the judge may deem to be proper.


Gabriele Neukam

(e-mail address removed)

 

[Turan Fettahoglu]

Germans don't send offenders into jail that easily. They will first have

to pay something. Say: 180 days of 30 EUR each, that sums up to 5400
EUR, or whatever the judge may deem to be proper.

180 daily incomes is equivalent to six months in jail, if the fine cannot be
collected.

It depends if he is treated as a minor (<= 18 years), adolescent (18-21) or
adult (>= 21): As an adult he might be fined as a first-time offender, as a
minor or adolescent he might get jailed (because he might not be able to pay
the fine).

The worse thing: he will get sued by his victims for million-euro-damages,
and he will pay for the next 30 years.

You bet this guy won't write another worm!

Turan

 

[mephisto]

Der Spiegel reports -
http://www.spiegel.de/spiegel/0,1518,299028,00.html -
that the author of Sasser also created the worm Netsky.ac in the code
of which he embedded the message "Do you know that we have programmed
the sasser virus?!? Yeah, that's true." which helped the experts from
Microsoft (US) to discover him.

G.C.

Well, but the question is, if it's true what's written in the
Netsky-Source. If you are the coder of such a Virus, and you see what
happens to people who gets jailed... wouldn't you act the same way?
Perhaps the Sasser-Coder is also the Netsky-Coder. Here in Germany, they
aren't sure. Some Newspaper/Newssites say he's responsible for both - some
don't.
BTW: The hint was given by a 'friend' of him to the police, and also to
Microsoft - Deutschland. The newspaper write, that his 'friend' just
wanted to get a piece of the 5 billion $.

mephisto

 

[Frederic Bonroy]

BTW: The hint was given by a 'friend' of him to the police, and also to
Microsoft - Deutschland. The newspaper write, that his 'friend' just
wanted to get a piece of the 5 billion $.

Not 5 billion dollars - "only" 250,000. Though the dollar-euro exchange
rate is not particularly advantageous, so his "friend" could be
disappointed. ;-)

 

[=?ISO-8859-1?Q?=BBQ=AB?=]

Not 5 billion dollars - "only" 250,000. Though the dollar-euro
exchange rate is not particularly advantageous, so his "friend"
could be disappointed. ;-)

Microsoft initially set up their 'reward program' with 5 million
USD. Don't millions and billions depend on where one is? Anyway,
it's 5 x 10^6 USD. As soon as I put the grand list together, I plan
to turn in all the virus spreaders at once and claim the whole
thing; the only hitch in my plan is the complete lack of names on my
current list. I'd better get to work before more Germans take bites
out of my Microsoft money.

 

[Frederic Bonroy]

Microsoft initially set up their 'reward program' with 5 million
USD. Don't millions and billions depend on where one is?

Yes and no, millions are the same everywhere (10^6). A billion is 10^9
in the US (and probably other English-speaking countries) and 10^12
elsewhere.

The reward was indeed 5 million if I remember correctly, but Sasser's
author is worth only 250,000 dollars.

 

[Dave Budd]

Yes and no, millions are the same everywhere (10^6). A billion is 10^9
in the US (and probably other English-speaking countries) and 10^12
elsewhere.

A billion used to be 10^12 in Britain, but the influence of American
economists has caused most people to now use the American version.

Some geeks I know now prefer the SI prefixes

 

[wb]

Der Spiegel reports -
http://www.spiegel.de/spiegel/0,1518,299028,00.html -
that the author of Sasser also created the worm Netsky.ac in the code
of which he embedded the message "Do you know that we have programmed
the sasser virus?!? Yeah, that's true." which helped the experts from
Microsoft (US) to discover him.

The update on this page talks about the taunt in the virus code.
http://www.lurhq.com/sasser.html

wb