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| Sven Jaschan was interviewed by Stern
magazine |
An interview with
German teenager Sven Jaschan, arrested in connection with the
Sasser and Netsky virus outbreaks, has revealed that all of his
classmates at college knew that he was the author of the
destructive worms.
The interview in Stern magazine paints a picture of Jaschan as a
shy, quiet teenager studying computer science at the vocational
school in Rotenburg. The magazine describes him as a young man with
few friends, who didn't like drinking or partying.
However, Jaschan discussed the Netsky worms he was writing in
early 2004 with his brothers, sisters and many of his classmates.
"They even encouraged me to add something that would cause damage,
but that was never what I wanted," claims Jaschan in the magazine.
Soon, it is said, all of the students in Jaschan's class knew what
he was doing, and Jaschan claims that some of them helped him
distribute his malicious code.
As the various
versions of the Netsky worm bombarded businesses worldwide with
millions of nuisance emails, Jaschan finally felt he was earning
the respect of his classmates. "It was just great how Netsky began
to spread, and I was the hero of my class," he is said to have told
the reporters from Stern.
At the end of April Sven Jaschan released the Sasser worm -
which spread quickly via the internet without using email, striking
many organisations including the UK coastguard service
and Taiwan's national
post office. Shortly afterwards Jaschan, apparently concerned
about being caught by the authorities, says he emailed his friends
saying that he would stop writing worms, and decided to wipe parts
of his hard disk and encrypt viral source code on his computer.
But in early May, one of Jaschan's schoolfriends revealed the worm author's
identity to Microsoft. The house Jaschan shared with his mother
and stepfather was raided by the
authorities who issued a search warrant. Computer crime
officers searched the house, disconnecting PCs, taking photographs,
and collecting CDs and floppy disks.
Realising that it was useless to deny his involvement with the
worms, Jaschan told the officers the password to his encrypted
files. During interrogation Jaschan also revealed the names of
friends who are said to have helped him.
"It's a shame that someone with obvious computer skills should
turn to writing computer viruses to increase their self esteem,
rather than doing something postive like developing computer games
or an innovative website," said Graham Cluley, senior technology
consultant for Sophos. "It's a sad story of how a young man with
potential can make the wrong decisions, and end up disrupting
millions of business and home computer users around the world."
The computer crime authorities in Germany are now collecting
evidence of companies who have suffered financial damage from Sven
Jaschan's worms.
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