Sophos Welcomes Arrest In Kournikova Virus Case

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 have arrested a 20 year old in connection with the recent “Anna Kournikova” virus 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”.

“A feeble excuse on the internet for why he did it won’t help the thousands of users who were infected by this virus,” said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at Sophos Anti-Virus. “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 less scruples will add a couple of lines of destructive code and create a much more damaging variant.”

The VBS/SST-A virus spread around the world earlier this week, pretending to be a graphic of popular Russian tennis star Anna Kournikova.

More details of the virus can be found at http://www.sophos.com/virusinfo/analyses/vbsssta.html