Sophos, a world leader in corporate anti-virus protection, has
welcomed the increasing co-operation between international computer
crime units following the arrest of the suspected author of the
"Leaves" computer
worm.
Scotland Yard announced today that, in co-operation with the
FBI, it arrested a British man in South London on July 23 on
suspicion of breaking the Computer Misuse Act. If found guilty, he
could face up to five years in prison.
The 24 year old, who has not been named, has been bailed to
appear again at a London police station on September 24. Police
authorities had kept the man's arrest secret until now to allow
further international investigations.
The Leaves worm (also known as W32/Leave-A) first appeared in
late June 2001, with some variants posing as a Microsoft security
bulletin warning about a dangerous new virus. Users who download
the patch will enable a backdoor into their home computers, making
them vulnerable to hackers.
"Viruses do not recognise national boundaries; a computer in San
Francisco could be taken down by a virus written by a youth in a
London back bedroom," said Graham Cluley, senior technology
consultant for Sophos Anti-Virus. "It is encouraging to see the US
and UK authorities working together to help stamp out the virus
threat."
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.