|
| Sven Jaschan ultimately walked free from the
court |
Two years ago today, on 8 May 2004, a German teenager was
arrested
in connection with the widespread Sasser and Netsky worm
outbreaks.
18-year-old Sven Jaschan of Waffensen, North Germany, wrote a
series of worms which hit tens of millions of computers around the
world. Experts at SophosLabs™, Sophos's global
network of virus, spyware and spam analysis centers, have revealed
that some of the worms created by Jaschan worms continue to have a
major impact 24 months later.
Jaschan's Netsky-P worm was found to have been responsible for
18.5% of all viruses reported at email gateways in April 2006.
"Two years have passed but Sven Jaschan's Netsky-P worm is still
the number one
reported virus in the world, despite him having been arrested
and found guilty in the meantime," said Graham Cluley, senior
technology consultant for Sophos. "Every anti-virus program - even
the crummiest ones - can detect the Netsky worm, and have been able
to for years. This tells us that there are still many people out
there who aren't using any anti-virus software at all, but are busy
passing on an old pox to others."
Sven Jaschan ultimately walked free from a German court, being
punished with 30 hours community service. A poll of
550 business users conducted by Sophos found that 78% believed his
sentence was not harsh enough.
"It's like the classic story of Pandora's Box. Viruses and
worms, once released can never be put back - regardless of whether
their creator is punished or regrets his or her actions," continued
Cluley. "The malware that Jaschan released on mankind is likely to
continue spreading for years to come."
Sophos continues to recommend that companies protect their email
with a consolidated solution to thwart the
virus, spyware and spam threats as well as secure their desktop and
servers with automatically updated anti-virus protection. Sophos
also recommends that users are educated in safe computing guidelines to help
reduce the risks.
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.