Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Zotob and Mytob Worm Authors Arrested

Posted by Zonk on from the life-becomes-less-annoying dept.

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.

5 of 363 comments (clear)

  1. Quick question. by mctk · · Score: 5, Insightful

    How on earth do they find these people?

    --
    Paul Grosfield - the quicker picker upper.
  2. What a bunch of shit by Rosco+P.+Coltrane · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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!!

    --
    "A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
  3. Re:It's a real shame by TripMaster+Monkey · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.
    --
    ____

    ~ |rip/\/\aster /\/\onkey

  4. Re:It's Windows by PyroX_Pro · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.

  5. Re:Diabl0 & Coder should be given medals by bcuriel · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.