Authorities Arrest Zotob Suspects

Local police have arrested several people in Turkey and Morocco under suspicion of involvement in last week's spate of computer worms, according to Microsoft. The worms known as Zotob, Rbot and Mytob, targeted the software giant's Windows 2000 operating system.

Microsoft worked in conjunction with the Turkish and Moroccan authorities and the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), according to a release from the company.

The software vendor provided the FBI with technical information and analytical support that was then shared with Turkish and Moroccan police.

Law enforcement officers in Rabat, Morocco, and in Adana and Ankara in Turkey, arrested the alleged distributors of the worms Thursday, 12 days after the release of the first Zotob worm, Microsoft says.

Limited Spread

The worms exploited vulnerabilities in the Windows 2000 operating system to infect computers running the software with malware that shifted complete control over the PCs to the hackers who launched the attacks.

Fortunately, the worms don't appear to have caused as much damage as previous hacker attacks.

Microsoft has since issued security patches to fix the holes in its operating system.