Sasser Author Arrested

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Germany's Sasser Worm Suspect Confessed-Police

SOURCE

BERLIN - The 18-year-old man arrested by German police on suspicion of creating the destructive "Sasser" computer worm confessed to police that he had programed the worm, a police spokesman said on Saturday.
"He made a confession to police," said spokesman Frank Federau for Lower Saxony police.

Federau did not give any details on where the admission was made or whether the man went to police before they searched his parents' home, where he also lives, on Friday afternoon.

Federau said more details would be available at a police news conference at 5 p.m. (1500 GMT).

Sasser, a tenacious computer worm, is expected to infect millions of machines before it runs its course.

Since appearing a week ago, it has wreaked havoc on personal computers running on the ubiquitous Microsoft Windows 2000, NT and XP operating systems, but is expected to slow down as computer users download anti-virus patches.

[clocker]

Some people's kids.
I think it's time to make an example of one of these losers.
Serious jail time and heavy financial penalties.
Screw him good and maybe his fate will give pause to other potential worm/virus authors.

The WWW is not just a toy or a way to kill some time on forums, it's a vital part of the worldwide infrastructure and these morons who casually screw around with it should be treated accordingly.
His action was fundamentally no different than someone who releases anthrax or Sarin into the wild. He is a terrorist.
Age is no excuse.
Let him rot.

[J'Pol]

I agree, these things can risk lives.

For example this one appears to have affected the UK Coast Guard.

Source

Who knows how many lives have been put at risk, or indeed lost as a result of this type of behavior. It is time we made it clear that it is not acceptable.

[james_bond_rulez]

how is that possible? maybe he's just a pupet and the real author is still in hiding...

and why "confess" to police?

do I smell bullshit here?

[clocker]

Boy, James...
Jumping right to the conspiracy theories, aren't we?

Maybe he confessed because they had strong evidence against him, hmmm?

Just a theory.
I guess we'll have to wait till the police press conference and see how dubious the story is.

[leftism]

What he did was certainly not acceptable but....

Originally posted by clocker
His action was fundamentally no different than someone who releases anthrax or Sarin into the wild. He is a terrorist.

that really is hysterical and also quite offensive to the people who were killed in the Sarin attack in Japan. There is no comparison between murder and releasing malicious code.

Also any Gvt body that was affected by this worm should sack their administrators. I'm not joking. There is NO NEED to have port 135 open to the internet on any system, let alone safety critical systems.

That is in no way detracting from the authors guilt but...

If your local hospital left the ambulance doors unlocked and they all got stolen you would blame the thieves, but you would also blame the stupidity of whoever left the ambulances unlocked. This is exactly the same scenario. Utter incompetence.

This worm should have been a non-issue for any commercial or government body. There is absolutely no excuse for such organisations getting caught out by this worm.

[james_bond_rulez]

clocker i think you need to pipe down a bit..

[clocker]

Originally posted by leftism@8 May 2004 - 11:52


that really is hysterical and also quite offensive to the people who were killed in the Sarin attack in Japan. There is no comparison between murder and releasing malicious code.

Lefty,

1). The people killed in the subway attack in Japan are currently dead. As such, they are incapable of being offended.

2). You have no idea of the life-threating ( or indeed, life-ending) consequences of disrupting computers worldwide. As pervasive and essential to modern life as computers are, it takes little imagination to see just how lethal a computer attack can be.

3). Whether or not computer administrators also share responsibility for any harm is completely irrelevant to the question of this kid's guilt or the severity of his punishment. If I was wounded by a stray bullet, your argument lays the blame at my feet since I wasn't wearing a Kevlar vest, a "reasonable precaution" in the neighborhood, perhaps. The two issues are not at all linked.
Punish the kid first and then look to others later.

JB,
Although I didn't feel I was especially strident in my first post, I see no reason to "pipe down".
A wonderful tool is being corrupted and placed in jeopardy almost daily now, and I hate the idea of armor-plating Sprocket just to defend her against the imprecations of some pimply- faced basement dweller.
These clowns need to be treated as the criminals they are, not as poor, unaware children.

[Autumn Fox]

I agree with clokers opinion.

Neither Sarin nor Anthrax has the power or capabilities to cause so much damage and influence so much in so short time. You may just not fully realize what it means.
Imagine this scenario:

#1: A virus like Sasser is created.
(However now, after the first one, way more sophisticated)
#2: Sasser 2 is released into the Net.
(But it does not activate yet, only spreads itself throught the Net with low efficiencyand waits for the call to activate)
#3: DoS, DDoS or other type of attack on major AV companies and System Developers/Supporters.
(No quick way of stopping by system or AVs definitions update)
#4: Designated time aproaches and the virus activates itself.
(Less fortified systems fall, medium ones are severly damaged and temporarly offline, best protected systems become overloaded and reduceall traffic. Mass-Media gone bye-bye for a week, only local services work. Internet slows down and becomes useless for the time needed to get servers back online.)


Fiction, you say ? No. Colorized ? Yes. But, please do remember, that what sometime ago was impossible now is old fashioned.

1). The people killed in the subway attack in Japan are currently dead. As such, they are incapable of being offended.

Keep in mind that most religions have a after-life part so by that, a beliver is being offended.

[clocker]

Originally posted by Autumn Fox@8 May 2004 - 16:53


Keep in mind that most religions have a after-life part so by that, a beliver is being offended.

Sounds like a pretty crappy afterlife if they have the time, or the desire, to be offended by living dweebs such as I.

Count me out.