Suspected author of Internet Sasser worm arrested in Germany

0 Comments | AFP, May, 2004

HANOVER, Germany (AFP) — 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 here.

The programmer, an 18-year-old male from the northern state of Lower Saxony, was detained on Friday, 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...