Experts at SophosLabs™, Sophos's global
network of virus, spyware and spam analysis centers, have welcomed
the news that computer crime authorities in Turkey believe they
have identified 16 more individuals, suspected of assisting in the
Zotob and Mytob worm outbreaks.
Louis Reigel, assistant director of the FBI's cyber division,
told delegates at the High-Tech Crime Investigation Association's
annual conference about the news from Turkey.
Last week, 21-year-old Atilla Ekici, was arrested in Turkey. It
is alleged that he paid Morrocan resident Farid Essebar to write
the Zotob worms which disrupted high profile organizations around
the world in August.
"Increasingly worms and viruses are being written to steal
confidential data from innocent people's computers, hijack
resources, or launch spam or denial-of-service attacks," said
Graham Cluley,
senior technology consultant for Sophos. "As the authorities
investigate more deeply into this case they are likely to uncover
traces of communication and connections between different internet
criminals. The arrests of two people last week could lead to the
break-up of a much larger internet gang."
At the moment no further arrests have been announced.
"Anyone thinking of a career in electronic crime should consider
very carefully whether it is really worth it," continued Cluley.
"The authorities are keen to break up these gangs of cybercriminals
and make the internet a safe place."
Sophos continues to recommend that companies protect all tiers
of their organization - their desktops, servers and email gateways
- with automatically updated anti-virus
software to reduce the risk of infection.
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.