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

Morocco and Turkey? Bleh

[bl968]

If I was either of the two suspects I would be crying my eyes out and demanding to be tried and jailed in the US instead of the "Local prosecution". Their best jails would likely not come up to the level of our worst.

It's a real shame

[saskboy]

It's a shame that these idiot kids can't make a program that every computer [that runs Windows anyway] could use, and then when they get the urge to explot a Windows hole, they'd have a payload that would do more than cause reboots and crashes, and could do something useful like calculate something for medical science, patch the hole they exploit without doing damage, or play a podcast with a good message.

ANYTHING. The lack of creativity in today's vandals is just pitiful.

Re:It's a real shame

[TripMaster Monkey]

I'm still waiting for the virus that infects systems through vulnerabilities in IE or Outlook/OE, then:

• Installs Firefox
  
• Configures it to be the default browser
  
• Imports the IE favorites to the bookmarks,
  
• Edits the registry to disable IE as much as possible
  
• Installs Thunderbird
  
• Configures it to be the default email client
  
• Imports contents of Outlook and OE address book to Thunderbird
  
• Uninstalls Outlook Express and OE
  
• Deletes itself

The writer of this 'virus' should get a frickin' medal.

Quick question.

[mctk]

How on earth do they find these people?

What a bunch of shit

[Rosco P. Coltrane]

The worm also is thought to have temporarily disabled the systems that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security uses to screen airline passengers entering the United States.

Oh so the airport screening machines are on the internet, are they? I feel safer in the hands of people as competent as the DHS already...

Or more likely, this is just another piece of DHS propaganda designed to enphasize how dangerous those virus writers are. So dangerous they can disable our precious airport security systems! Terrorists!!

Re:What a bunch of shit

[freshman_a]

Oh so the airport screening machines are on the internet, are they?

Or more likely, someone brought in an infected laptop and connected it to the network...

Not that it's a much better situation, but just because a computer (or network) has a virus on it, does not mean it's on the internet.

Re:What a bunch of shit

[Rosco P. Coltrane]

UPS != DHS

UPS is a commercial venture, they may have grave problems, but it's not a matter of national security.

The DHS on the other hand, given the important task of securing the homeland that they've been given, if they can't be trusted to use something other than Windows connected directly to the net to do their job, they should be kicked in the butt.

My suspicion however is that they're not that stupid, they probably do have secure systems and networks, and that's what leads me to deduce that the statement in TFA about kids half-way around the globe being able to disable airport security is a crock of shit. Either way, the DHS should be investigated, either for negligence, or for misleading the public.

Re:It's Windows

[PyroX_Pro]

Pointing at the emperor and throwing rocks at his balls are two very different things. They could of just pointed. They went the rocks at balls path.

Re:i always wondered

[tundog]

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

Creating these viruses is easy. It takes a lot more skill to create a complex system than it does to find a crack in the foundation and exploit it. All that this really shows is that Russia has some 'unconscionable' programmers.

Funny Logic ...

[joelsanda]

How is this wrong? People like this are keeping software developers on their toes. I say good on them...

Couldn't you make the same case for people shooting cops or driving drunk? In the first case it will spur body armor manufacturers to create more effective armor. In the later it may lead to safer cars?

Re:Diabl0 & Coder should be given medals

[bcuriel]

I'm assuming you didn't read any of the articles above.

The exploit was for a patch MICROSOFT HAD ALREADY RELEASED. They were merely taking advantage of the hole that Microsoft revealed by making the patch available.

I fail to see how these guys deserve anything but the punishment they are getting.