Two Men Nabbed In Worm Investigation

Two men have been arrested in connection with an investigation into the Zotob worm, which surfaced in August and took advantage of a flaw in the Microsoft operating system. The worm affected computers at organizations including The New York Times, ABC, CNN, the Associated Press, and the Immigration and Customs Enforcement bureau. According to Louis M. Riegel, assistant director for cyber crimes at the FBI, Farid Essebar was arrested in Morocco, and Atilla Ekici was arrested in Turkey. Riegel said that Ekici had paid Essebar to write the worm, and the pair are also suspected of writing the Mytob worm, which was released in February. Zotob is able to infect computers even if users do not open any applications. As a result, some users are struck by the worm without knowing about it. Still, experts believe the damage from the worm has been relatively minor, given that the operating system most affected, Windows 2000, is more than five years old and that most organizations quickly patched the flaw that Zotob exploits.

San Jose Mercury News, 27 August 2005