[ISN] [Vmyths.com ALERT] Will U.S. try to extradite Sasser's creator?

[InfoSec News]

Vmyths.com Virus Hysteria Alert
{8 May 2004, 13:10 CT}

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CATEGORY: Historical perspective on recent hysteria
          http://Vmyths.com/hoax.cfm?id=280&page=3

A Reuters newswire says "German police have arrested an 18-year-old
man suspected of creating the 'Sasser' computer worm, believed to be
one of the Internet's most costly outbreaks of sabotage...  [A police
spokesman] said the suspect admitted to programming the worm."  See
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4928653 for the full text of the newswire.

In our previous Hysteria Alert, we predicted the fearmongers at mi2g
will soon slap an astronomical dollar value on the Sasser worm.  The
U.S. alone will account for a few billion of mi2g's guesstimate.  
This leads us to ponder an interesting question:

Will the Justice Department try to extradite the author of the Sasser
worm?  Will he stand trial on American soil for a multi-billion-dollar
crime?

If history is a guide, Sasser's author will never appear before a U.S.
judge.  Consider the following:

   1) U.S. feds never sought extradition for Jan de Wit (aka
      "OnTheFly"), who released the Kournikova virus in February 2001.  
      A Dutch court convicted him for the crime but he remains free of 
      a U.S. indictment.

   2) U.S. feds never sought extradition for any of the suspects
      behind the ILoveYou virus in May 2000.  Reonel Ramones, Onel de
      Guzman, and Irene de Guzman remain free of a U.S. indictment in 
      the Philippines despite the successful completion of a 
      much-publicized worldwide manhunt.

   3) U.S. feds never sought extradition for Mike Calce (aka
      "Mafiaboy"), a then-14yr-old hacker who masterminded an 
      e-commerce attack that (supposedly) very nearly destroyed 
      Amazon.com, Yahoo!, eBay, CNN, and other U.S.-based firms in 
      February 2000.  Calce was found guilty in Canada for the crime 
      but remains free of a U.S. indictment.

   4) U.S. feds never sought extradition for acknowledged Chernobyl
      virus writer Chen Ing-Hau for "destroy[ing] thousands" of U.S.
      government, military, corporate, academic, and personal PCs in 
      April 1999.  He remains free of a U.S. indictment in Taiwan.

FBI agents traditionally provide "evidence" to other countries to help
them prosecute virus/worm authors ... but that's as far as it goes.  
Remember this when you read stories about the arrest of Sasser's
creator.  Vmyths predicts he won't be extradited to America.

Remember your history lessons.  Stay calm.  Stay reasoned.  
And stay tuned to Vmyths.

Rob Rosenberger, editor
http://Vmyths.com
(319) 646-2800


CATEGORY: Historical perspective on recent hysteria
          http://Vmyths.com/hoax.cfm?id=280&page=3

--------------- Useful links ------------------

Remember this when virus hysteria strikes
http://Vmyths.com/resource.cfm?id=31&page=1

Common clichés in the antivirus world
http://Vmyths.com/resource.cfm?id=22&page=1

False Authority Syndrome
http://Vmyths.com/fas/fas1.cfm