Zombie Code Writer Arrested In New ZealandPolice in New Zealand have announced the arrest of a zombie code writer (30th November 2007). In the world of cybercrime, taking an ordinary pc and hijacking it without the owner realising and then using it for your own malicious ends, is known as creating a 'zombie' pc. Across the world there are thought to be millions of such machines. These zombies can be used to send spam emails - thus hiding the true identity of the sender, be involved in some form of theft or fraud - often identity theft - or used to make annonymous hacking attacks. Of course, the nature of the web means that a zombie in one country can be doing all sorts of bad things on the other side of the world. This makes it very difficult for law enforcement to catch bad guys in the act. Zombie pcs are generally not well protected. This usually means that they do not have anti-spyware, a firewall or anti-virus software installed. The hacker will use this hole in defences to take remote control from afar. Often, the speed of modern computers means that this software can operate in the background without the user being aware. This zombie code writer is apparently just 18 years of age! Bearing in mind how long it can take for police across multiple jurisdictions to coordinate an investigation and an arrest, it is safe to presume that this young man is already very experienced. His identity cannot be released for legal reasons (see the irony in that!) but his hacker name is apparently 'Akill'. It is impossible to know how much money has been stolen, lost or wasted due to the software written by this person, but since it is believed that he sold it onto other criminals, the losses are sure to continue. To read more about this story, please visit:
BBC Story
EU Identity Theft News
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