++ [ originally posted by Graham
] ++
Sasser worm suspect arrested
From correspondents in Hanover, Germany
May 8, 2004
A COMPUTER programmer suspected of creating the internet Sasser worm that infected millions of computers worldwide last week has been arrested in Rotenburg, northern Germany, a police spokesman said today.
The programmer, an 18-year-old male from the northern state of Lower Saxony, was detained yesterday, the spokesman said. No further details were provided.
The Sasser worm struck on May 1, and in less than a week may have affected as many as 18 million computers worldwide, forcing some businesses to shut temporarily in order to debug their systems and update anti-virus protection.
The worm attacks through a flaw in recent versions of Microsoft's Windows operating systems - Windows 2000, Windows Server 2003 and Windows XP - and forces the computer to shut down, then reboots, then repeats the process several times. It apparently does no lasting harm.