http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.j...I1OCRBAELCFEY?
HANOVER, Germany (Reuters) - German police have arrested an 18-year-old man who confessed to creating the "Sasser" computer worm, believed to be one of the costliest Internet attacks.
In what police called the largest case of its kind, the computer science student was arrested on Friday after software giant Microsoft gave German authorities a tip-off, police said.
"We are absolutely certain that this really is the creator of the Internet worm because Microsoft experts were involved in the inquiry and confirmed our suspicions and because the suspect admitted to it," said Frank Federau from Lower Saxony police.
Microsoft, the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and German police had worked together to find the suspect.
Police described the suspect as a highly intelligent "computer freak" living with his parents.
They said the man, who they declined to name, studied computer science at a vocational school and he got his "passion for programing" from his family's computer services business.
It was the lure of cash that proved the man's undoing. A group of individuals from his home state of Lower Saxony approached Microsoft on Wednesday inquiring about reward money should they turn in the man, Microsoft said.
The firm has put bounties of up to $250,000 on the heads of other notorious virus writers. Microsoft general counsel Brad Smith told reporters the company agreed to pay the informants if there is a conviction.
Ruediger Butte, head of the State Crime Office in Lower Saxony, said Microsoft contacted German police on Friday. Police arrested the man the same day near the central German town of Rotenburg and he confessed during the afternoon.
He was later set free because there was no evidence to suggest he was a repeat offender, police said.
Police believed he created all variants of the Sasser worm, a destructive program that has claimed big scalps, such as Germany's Deutsche Post and Britain's coastguard stations