Sasser Worm Author May Have Tried to Help Mom's PC Shop

A German 18-year-old who has confessed to writing the crippling "Sasser" computer worm that caused chaos around the world may have been trying to help his mother's small PC Help business, the Reuters news agency reported on Monday. Reuters said state prosecutors were investigating whether Sven Jaschan was motivated by hoping to increase business for the computer repair shop run by his mother and step-father. "That's a possibility that cannot be dismissed out of hand," Detlev Dyballa, spokesman for the prosecutor's office in Verden, told Reuters. "He's a young man who's been working with computers for years and the company is involved in computer maintenance." The "Sasser" worm last week wriggled its way around the world, bringing computer networks to a crawl or complete halt. Jaschan could face up to five years in prison for computer sabotage.