Zotob worm authors arrested

Two people were arrested in connection with the Mytob, Zotob, and Rbot family of worms. Moroccan authorities, working with the FBI, have arrested a Russian-born virus writer named Farid Essebar, 18, and Turkish authorities have arrested Atilla Ekici, 21. Both Morocco and Turkey have cybercrime laws in place, and it is expected that both men will be tried within their respective countries. Antivirus vendor reports that both men are associated with 0x90-Team, a site dedicated to educating others about botnets. The Washington Post (free registration required) reports that Essebar, using the online nickname Diab10, and Ekici, using the name Coder, were making money off the worms by lowering remotely the security standards within Internet Explorer so that pop-up advertising, spyware, and adware could run on a victim's computer.