25 Oct 2004
Sasser computer worm trial delayed, Sophos reports
 |
| After his arrest Sven Jaschan was photographed
and interviewed by Stern magazine about his virus-writing
activities. |
The trial of Sven Jaschan, the German teenager who confessed to
authoring the Sasser worm which struck computers worldwide earlier
this year, has been delayed until January 2005.
A court in the North German town of Verden is said to have
decided to delay the case until 2005 because it proved impossible
to agree an earlier date with all the parties involved.
Jaschan's Netsky and Sasser worms accounted for over 70% of all the virus
incidents reported to Sophos during the first half of 2004.
Even today, months after his arrest, the Netsky worms dominate the
list of most commonly sighted viruses.
18-year-old Jaschan was charged in September
of computer sabotage amounting to a total of $157,000. However,
because many businesses did not report the damage done by the worms
to their computer systems, prosecutors believe the real figure is
in the millions. Recently, a German company controversially
announced that they had hired him to help develop their internet
security software.
"A strong message needs to be sent out to the computer
underground that writing and distributing viruses is criminal
behaviour," said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant for
Sophos. "Home users and companies around the world who were struck
by the Netsky and Sasser worms will be watching with interest to
see what happens in this case."
About Sophos
More than 100 million users in 150 countries rely on Sophos as the best protection against complex threats and data loss. Sophos is committed to providing security and data protection solutions that are simple to manage, deploy and use and that deliver the industry's lowest total cost of ownership. Sophos offers award-winning encryption, endpoint security, web, email, and network access control solutions backed by SophosLabs - a global network of threat intelligence centers. With more than two decades of experience, Sophos is regarded as a leader in security and data protection by top analyst firms and has received many industry awards.
Sophos is headquartered in Boston, US and Oxford, UK. More information is available at www.sophos.com.