Sasser kid: He did it for mom?!

Here's hoping no other mother's teenage son supports her career in quite this way! The Verdun, Germany, prosecutor's office said it was possible that 18-year-old Sven Jaschan's motive for creating the Sasser worm that "caused chaos around the world ... may have been to drum up business for his mother." Sven's mom and stepfather run a computer tech-support business, Reuters reports. The boy "could face trial in June on charges of computer sabotage, which carry a maximum five-year prison sentence. But the punishment may be less severe because ... [Sven] was 17 when the crimes were committed." The boy's tech teacher told the media he was very skilled (German police believe he also wrote all 28 variants of the earlier Netsky worm) but should've understood the implications better.

The 5th Sasser variant discovered within hours of Sven's arrest last Friday appears to have been an effort on his part to limit the worm's damage, backing up the idea that this kid is more misguided than malicious. In its code is a warning to users "whose computers are vulnerable that their systems have not been patched," CNET reports.