Tracking down worm author nets reward

Microsoft will pay a total of US$250,000 ($375,601) to two people who helped track down the author of the Sasser internet worm, which infected computers around the globe.

A German court has given Sven Jaschan a suspended sentence of 21 months after he admitted creating the malicious software programme.

Jaschan, 19, was arrested within a week after the Sasser worm appeared on the internet in May 2004 and infected more than a million computers running Microsoft's Windows operating system.

The pair, who were not identified, will share the reward, which Microsoft established with Interpol, the FBI and the US Secret Service.

Microsoft, based in Redmond, Washington, has been trying to make its software more secure, and has also vowed to go after hackers and others who create worms and malicious software viruses by offering bounties and suing them.

In January, Jeffrey Lee Parson, 19, was sentenced in US District Court in Seattle to a year-and-a-half in prison for releasing a worm variant.