Sasser author nabbed

Waffensen, Germany

The high school senior who created the Sasser computer virus was arrested this week after somebody tipped off Microsoft to his identity. Sven Jaschan, a geeky loner whose mother runs a computer store, reportedly confessed, but said he had no idea how much trouble his handiwork had caused. The virus does not erase data, but it causes computers to keep rebooting. Within a week, it wreaked havoc everywhere from Finland, where it shut down a major bank, to Taiwan, where it crippled the postal service. Jaschan, who just turned 18, will be tried as a juvenile. If he is convicted, Microsoft will pay the anonymous tipster $250,000.

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