Authors of Zotob/Mytob worms arrested (thought to have disabled pax screening computers)

http://blogs.washingtonpost.com/securityfix/

Two men were arrested Thursday on suspicion of releasing the "Zotob"
and "Mytob" worms, variants of which have infected thousands of
computers running Microsoft's Windows operating system. The arrests
were announced today by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

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.

The first Zotob worm emerged Aug. 14, just four days after Microsoft
released a patch to fix the security hole that the worm exploited. A
few days later, several companies -- including CNN, The New York
Times, and ABC News -- reported widespread infections by the worm. 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.

"Mytob" is a mass-mailing e-mail worm that first emerged in late
February and has since spawned dozens of variants. Hackers have used
Mytob to steal personal information from infected computers and to
convert infected computers into spam relays.

According to a report on an Arabic new site, Essebar and Ekici
allegedly used the information they stole from infected computers to
facilitate a bankcard forgery scam.
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