Sven Jaschan - History

History

Jaschan lived in the village of Waffensen, Germany and attended a computer science school in nearby Rotenburg. The student admitted writing and releasing the two damaging worms when arrested by German police on 7 May 2004 after a three-month long international investigation. Following his arrest, Microsoft confirmed that they had received tip-offs from more than one source, and that the $250,000 reward for identifying the author of the NetSky worm would be shared between them. A Microsoft official attended the arrest and the initial interrogation. Some sources claim that at least one tip-off came from a classmate of Jaschan's to whom he had boasted of his activities. Several of Jaschan's classmates also came under investigation following Jaschan's arrest. There was also speculation that he had written the worms to drum up business for his mother and stepfather's PC support business and was actively working on an antidote to the worm. In an interview in July 2004, Jaschan claimed to have written the Netsky worms in order to remove infection with Mydoom and Bagle worms from victims' computers. He also confirmed that a classmate had given a tip to Microsoft.