Virus writer Sven Jaschan has been found guilty of computer sabotage and
illegally altering data after releasing the Sasser worm
in May 2004.
The court in Verden, in the north west of Germany, gave the teenager a
suspended sentence of one year and nine months.
Jaschan was caught following a tip-off to police
after Microsoft offered a $250,000 reward for information leading to the
conviction of the worm's creator.
"Sven Jaschan avoided a jail sentence by the skin of his teeth because he was
arrested within days of his 18th birthday. He was lucky that the police caught
him when they did," said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at Sophos.
"Nevertheless, his name will always be associated with some of the biggest
viruses in the history of the internet."
Cluley added that a Sophos survey of almost 1,000 people last month found
that 66 per cent believed that a jail sentence is the most appropriate
punishment for writing a virus.
Jaschan has told officials that his original intention was to create a virus
that would combat the Mydoom and
Bagle viruses and remove them from infected computers.
This led him to develop the Netsky virus further, and to
modify it to create Sasser.
The worm was released in May 2004 and spread round the world with
unprecedented speed, accounting for 70 per cent of all infections during the
first half of 2004.
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