May 08, 2004
Microsoft, Reward-Seekers Help Nab Sasser Creator
Creator of “Sasser” worm arrested. Microsoft’s reward a major factor.
HANOVER, Germany (Reuters) - A tip from reward-seekers and information from Microsoft led to the arrest of an 18-year-old suspected of creating the “Sasser” computer worm, German police and the software giant said on Saturday.
Spokesman Frank Federau for Lower Saxony police said police were certain they had the man behind one of the Internet’s most costly outbreaks of sabotage.
“We are absolutely certain that this really is the creator of the Internet worm because Microsoft experts were involved in the inquiry and confirmed our suspicions and because the suspect admitted to it,” he said in an interview with Reuters Television.
It was the lure of cash that proved the man’s undoing. A group of individuals from Lower Saxony approached Microsoft MSFT.O on Wednesday inquiring about reward money should they turn in the man.
The U.S. software giant in the past has put bounties of up to $250,000 on the heads of other notorious virus writers.
Source: Reuters © 2004 Reuters
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