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The teenaged creator of the Sasser worm, which caused thousands of problems for computer users worldwide, gets a slap on the wrist.

Thanks to a tribunal that decided to try Sven Jaschan as a child instead of an adult, Sasser's perpetrator gets 21 months of probation.

The soft sentence includes a paltry 30 hours of community service, to be rendered at a hospital or retirement home, according to comments made by Katharina Kreutzfeldt, spokeswoman for the Verden State Court, to the media.

His new employer, a security software firm, had said before the trial they planned to keep Mr. Jaschan on staff regardless of the trial's outcome. In three years, with no other criminal activity, his record will be expunged.

Prosecutors argued that Mr. Jaschan distributed the virus starting on his 18th birthday, April 29, 2004, and called for a two year suspended sentence and 200 hours of community service. But the court decided that since he created the virus while 17, it would try him as a child.

A tip received in response to a reward offered by Microsoft led to Mr. Jaschan's arrest. Microsoft offered $250,000 for information leading to the identification and arrest of Sasser's author. Microsoft said two people helped identify the culprit and will share the reward.

Microsoft has said in the past that disclosing details of a vulnerability with patch information leads to people writing exploits like Sasser. The Sasser worm was released 18 days after the patch for its targeted vulnerability, and it took advantage of users who hadn't yet patched their systems.

David Utter is a staff writer for WebProNews covering technology and business. Email him here.