Sophos, a world leader in corporate anti-virus protection, has
welcomed the arrest of a man in the Netherlands in connection with
the VBS/SST-A
computer worm.
Dutch police spokesman Robert Rambonnet confirmed that the
police force in the Netherlands has arrested a 20 year old in
connection with the recent "Anna Kournikova" worm outbreak on
suspicion of damaging computer programs and property.
The man, who lives in Friesland, turned himself into the
authorities after apparently posting a bizarre apology for his
actions on the internet. His identity has not been revealed, but
the author of the computer worm and self-confessed fan of Anna
Kournikova uses the pseudonym "OnTheFly".
The man, whose computer has been confiscated by the authorities,
is expected to be charged with damaging computer programs and
property, and could receive a maximum of four years in prison. A
district court is expected to hear his case in the next few
weeks.
"A feeble excuse on the internet for why he did it won't help
the thousands of users who were infected by this worm," said
Graham Cluley,
senior technology consultant at Sophos. "Once you have released a
virus you can't take it back, it will always be out there. Even
worse is the very real possibility that someone with even fewer
scruples will create a more damaging variant."
The VBS/SST-A worm spread around the world earlier this week,
pretending to be a graphic of popular Russian tennis star Anna
Kournikova.
Sophos recommends companies protect themselves with a
consolidated solution which can
control network access and defend
against the threats of spam, hackers, spyware and viruses.
More than 100 million users in 150 countries rely on Sophos as the best protection against complex threats and data loss. Sophos is committed to providing security and data protection solutions that are simple to manage, deploy and use and that deliver the industry's lowest total cost of ownership. Sophos offers award-winning encryption, endpoint security, web, email, and network access control solutions backed by SophosLabs - a global network of threat intelligence centers. With more than two decades of experience, Sophos is regarded as a leader in security and data protection by top analyst firms and has received many industry awards.
Sophos is headquartered in Boston, US and Oxford, UK. More information is available at www.sophos.com.