Related Literature
Chapter 3
COMPUTER AND INTERNET CRIME
In view of all the deadly computer viruses that have been spreading lately, Weekend Update would like to remind you: when you link up to another computer, you’re linking up to every computer that the computer has ever linked up to. * Dennis Miller, Saturday Night Live, U.S. television show
QUOTE
VIGNETTE
Treatment of Sasser Worm Author Sends Wrong Message
Unleashed in April 2004, the Sasser worm hit IT systems around the world hard and fast. Unlike the most
Computer viruses before it, the Sasser worm didn’t spread through e-mail, but moved undetected across the Internet from computer to computer. It exploited a weakness in Microsoft Windows XP and Windows 2000 operating systems. By the first weekend in May, American Express, the Associated Press, the British Coast Guard, universities, and hospitals reported that the Sasser worm had swamped their systems. Computer troubles led Delta Airlines to cancel 40 flights and delay many others. Microsoft quickly posted a $250,000 reward, and by mid-May, authorities apprehended Sven Jaschen, a German teenager, Jaschen confessed and was convicted after a three day trial. Jaschen could have receives up to five years in prison, but because he was tried as a minor, the court suspended his 21-month sentence, leaving him with only 30 hours community service.
Authorities said that once Jaschen realized the havoc the Sasser worm was causing, he tried to author a new version that reverse the damage. His real intent, they said, had simmply been to gain fame as a programmer and perhaps to increase business for his mother, who owned a computer shop in his hometown.
Although Jaschen’s sentence seemed like a crime to many in the IT industry, the real injustice occured just a few months after Jaschen’s indictment, when Securepoint, a German IT security company, hired Jaschen as a programmer. It appeared that the teen responsible for 70 percent of all computer virus
COMPUTER AND INTERNET CRIME
In view of all the deadly computer viruses that have been spreading lately, Weekend Update would like to remind you: when you link up to another computer, you’re linking up to every computer that the computer has ever linked up to. * Dennis Miller, Saturday Night Live, U.S. television show
QUOTE
VIGNETTE
Treatment of Sasser Worm Author Sends Wrong Message
Unleashed in April 2004, the Sasser worm hit IT systems around the world hard and fast. Unlike the most
Computer viruses before it, the Sasser worm didn’t spread through e-mail, but moved undetected across the Internet from computer to computer. It exploited a weakness in Microsoft Windows XP and Windows 2000 operating systems. By the first weekend in May, American Express, the Associated Press, the British Coast Guard, universities, and hospitals reported that the Sasser worm had swamped their systems. Computer troubles led Delta Airlines to cancel 40 flights and delay many others. Microsoft quickly posted a $250,000 reward, and by mid-May, authorities apprehended Sven Jaschen, a German teenager, Jaschen confessed and was convicted after a three day trial. Jaschen could have receives up to five years in prison, but because he was tried as a minor, the court suspended his 21-month sentence, leaving him with only 30 hours community service.
Authorities said that once Jaschen realized the havoc the Sasser worm was causing, he tried to author a new version that reverse the damage. His real intent, they said, had simmply been to gain fame as a programmer and perhaps to increase business for his mother, who owned a computer shop in his hometown.
Although Jaschen’s sentence seemed like a crime to many in the IT industry, the real injustice occured just a few months after Jaschen’s indictment, when Securepoint, a German IT security company, hired Jaschen as a programmer. It appeared that the teen responsible for 70 percent of all computer virus