Sabotage charge for Sasser teen
A German teenager who created the Sasser worm that disrupted computers around the world in May has been charged with computer sabotage, prosecutors said.
Sven Jaschan, 18, was arrested after telling officials his original intention was to create a virus, "Netsky A," that would combat the "Mydoom" and "Bagle" viruses, removing them from infected computers.
He developed several versions of the Netsky virus and, after modifying it, created Sasser, which raced around the world exploiting a flaw in Microsoft Corp.'s Windows operating system.
Computer sabotage carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison.
In their indictment, prosecutors in Jaschan's home state of Lower Saxony chose the cases of three German city governments and a public broadcaster whose systems were disrupted.
Sasser caused infected computers to crash and reboot, making it impossible to work on them.
Prosecutors said they have been contacted by 143 plaintiffs with total damage claims of 130,000 euros ($157,000).
