Sasser Suspect Sven Speaks (and Confesses)   - 1,614 Views, 1 Comment

The Sasser worm, which took its name from the LSASS hole in Windows which it exploited, has a been blamed for everything from forcing the UK’s Maritime and Coastguard Agency to resort to manual map-reading, to delaying British airline check-in systems, to taking out several hundred post office computer systems in Taiwan, to bringing parts of the Australian rail system to a screeching halt.

Jaschan was fingered after Microsoft offered a $250,000 USD reward for information leading to his arrest. Upon being apprehended he confessed not only to authoring the Sasser worm, but also some versions of Netsky, confessions which he repeated today at the opening of his trial.

Sasser was unique compared to many other worms of the time in that it did not require a user to unleash it, but rather was able to transmit itself from machine to machine. That may explain at least in part some estimates that Sasser was responsible for as much as 70% of all virus infections during the first half of 2004. That’s a whole lot of infecting.

Jaschan, who is nineteen years old now, was a minor at the time that he was arrested. Because of that he may escape jail time, but it likely won’t be enough to shield him from the civil lawsuits which many predict will follow.