Sven Jaschan, the alleged author of the Sasser worm and several variants of the Netsky virus, was charged this week by German police, but the informant who led authorities to the suspect will have to wait for a promised $250,000 reward, Microsoft officials said Friday.
The threat of infection by mass-mailed viruses is decreasing, according to reports, while tailored attacks are on the increase.
A new version of the Internet worm MyDoom includes a photo of suspected Netsky worm writer Sven Jaschan and a description of the worm itself.
Around 3,300 new malicious codes have been detected by security software provider Trend Micro from 1-20 August this year.
Sven Jaschan, an 18-year-old from Waffensen in Lower Saxony, who is also thought to be behind the Netsky virus and is currently awaiting trial for writing the Sasser worm, could be about to start work with German firewall company Securepoint.
Microsoft confirmed on Monday that German authorities had arrested a man suspected of writing and releasing a program widely used to surreptitiously control computers on the Internet.
Microsoft's US$5 million fund for rewarding informants for leads on virus attacks has snagged its first success with the arrest of a man in Germany who has confessed to the release of the Sasser worm, the software giant said Saturday.
A year on, and the company's US$1 million tip-off program has nabbed just one (alleged) virus writer. Is it a bust?
History of British PCs
The cash-strapped UK National Museum of Computing is home to an exhibition of the evolution of British PCs.… Watch it now
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