Zotob and Mytob Worm Authors Arrested

An anonymous reader writes "The Washingtonpost.com is reporting that two men have been arrested for allegedly authoring and releasing the "Zotob" and "Mytob" worms. The first Zotob, released Aug 14 - just 4 days after Microsoft released a fix for the hole it exploited, infected systems at many major news outlets. Mytob remains one of the most pervasive worms on the 'Net today." From the article: "Moroccan authorities, working with the FBI, arrested Farid Essebar, 18, a Moroccan national born in Russia who went by the screen moniker 'Diabl0.' Arrested in Turkey was Atilla Ekici, aka 'Coder,' age 21. Both individuals will be subject to local prosecutions, the FBI said." Update: 08/26 20:56 GMT by Z : Nana Mous wrote to mention an eWeek blow by blow account of Microsoft's response to the worm. Very interesting read.

Comments

With a name like...

[zetes]

Atilla, you don't need a cool alias - you already have one!

Re:Young

[L. VeGas]

You know how it is. When you're young, it's hard to keep your worm to yourself.

i always wondered

[tont0r]

what would someone that age get out of releasing something that would cost so much damage?? i realize you get the whole '3Y3 PWN3D J00R 4SS' effect, but still.

and also, i guess this shows more than russia has some awesome programmers :)

last tid bit:
Moroccan authorities, working with the FBI, arrested Farid Essebar, 18, a Moroccan national born in Russia who went by the screen moniker "Diabl0."
who the hell uses the term 'screen moniker'??

how were they caught?

[dotpavan]

they had apparently commented the code: //.. @uthors: Farid Essebar, Atilla Ekici

Re:how were they caught?

[Deviant Q]

No no no, these days you've got to do it right... JavaDoc syntax!

/**
* @package Pwnz0ringVirusOfDeath
* @subpackage PwningModule
* @author Farid Essebar, Atilla Ekici
* @copyright Copyright © 2005, WePwnJ00 Inc.
*/

Re:Informative link:

[Anonymous Coward]

in morroco if they ctch you hcking they will cut your pinkies off, it mkes cpitliztion rel bitch. trust me i know

Happy Bithday, Joshi

[unsigned integer]

Reminds me of the DOS 'Pac Man' virus ... everytime you typed a '.', a little pac-man would run out and eat it. It cracks me up everytime I think about it for some reason. Why don't we have some viruses that act more as 'creative grafitti', rather that pure tools of spam and DDoS slaves? If they are relatively benign enough, I could picture letting them run on my computer for kicks. :-)

Happy Birthday, Joshi.

Re:It's a real shame

[MightyMartian]

I'm waiting for the worm that installs itself, grabs a baseball and begins beating the user over the head shouting in a William Shatner voice "Look... you fucking idiot... don't open... mail with attachments..."