A cyber mastermind from Slovenia who is suspected of creating a malicious software code that infected 12 million computers worldwide and orchestrating other huge cyberscams has been arrested and questioned, police said on Wednesday.
Leon Keder, a spokesman for the Slovenian police, did not identify the suspect.
Keder said the man was released after police made sure that he could not tamper with evidence or leave Slovenia, but offered no details pending an investigation.
The FBI in Washington said that a 23-year old Slovene known as Iserdo was picked up in Maribor in northwestern Slovenia 10 days ago, after lengthy investigation by Slovenian police, FBI and Spanish authorities.
His arrest comes about five months after Spanish police broke up the massive cyberscam, arresting three of the alleged ringleaders who operated the Mariposa botnet, which stole credit cards and online banking credentials.
The botnet - a network of infected computers - appeared in December 2008 and infected hundreds of companies and at least 40 major banks.
Botnets are networks of PCs that have been infected by a virus, remotely hijacked from their owners, often without their owners' knowledge, and put into the control of criminals.
"In the last two years, the software used to create the Mariposa botnet was sold to hundreds of other criminals, making it one of the most notorious in the world," said FBI Director Robert Mueller in a statement.
"These cyber intrusions, thefts, and frauds undermine the integrity of the internet and the businesses that rely on it; they also threaten the privacy and pocketbooks of all who use the internet."
The Mariposa botnet, which has been dismantled, was easily one of the world's biggest. It spread to more than 190 countries, according to the researchers who helped take it down after examining it in the (northern) spring of 2009.
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