Breaking news from Reuters in Europe confirms that German police have caught an 18-year old man suspected of being the author of the Sasser virus.  What made Sasser unique was the fact that it was a worm virus not transmitted in the usual ways such as e-mail, MS Office documents, pif or exe file attachments. 

Rather, Sasser was a network-aware worm that exploits a known Microsoft vulnerability and programmed to spread and knock out computer networks, without necessarily stealing information from machines it infected.  The virus spread itself by scanning randomly chosen IP addresses and checking for machines running Microsoft operating systems such as Windows 2000 and XP that have not been patched to secure the TCP ports being attacked.

During the NCTA 2004 National Show, held earlier this week in New Orleans, VeriSign (NASDAQ: VRSN) introduced its MSO-IP Connect VoIP routing service.  The NCTA (National Cable & Telecommunications Association) is the main trade association of the American cable TV industry.  The NCTA National Show is an annual trade event which serves as a national showcase for the cable industry's newest innovations, including technologies such as voice over cable (local telephone service), HDTV, iTV, etc. 

The VeriSign launch is significant because it represents a glimpse into the future of voice over cable - many other players are expected to follow suit.  Using ENUM technology, the company offers to interconnect the broadband IP networks of cable service providers, thereby enabling subscriber-to-subscriber calls to remain on the cable network and never actually traverse the PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network).