It turns out that crime does pay, after all. Informants, that is.

Microsoft has announced that they will pay out a promised $250,000 USD reward to two informants who helped lead authorities to Sasser creator Sven Jaschan. The teenaged Jaschan was tried last week, and received a suspended sentence for having authored the worm which wreaked havoc on hundreds of thousands of computer systems world-wide.

Said Nancy Anderson, Deputy General Counsel for Microsoft, “We’re pleased that the author of the Sasser worm has admitted responsibility for the damage he caused and is being held accountable. It has been important and gratifying to collaborate with and support law enforcement in this case, and we’re glad to provide a monetary reward to those individuals who provided credible information that helped the German police authorities solve this case.”

“At Microsoft, even as we continue to work to make our technology more secure and to educate users about how to protect themselves, we remain committed to working in close relationship with law enforcement officials and agencies around the world to help stamp out criminal behavior,” she added.