Mariposa botnet suspects quizzed in Slovenia

Butterfly investigation spreads its wings

Slovenian police have arrested four suspects over allegations that they developed the Mariposa botnet malware.

The arrests follow a joint investigation between the FBI and Slovenian police and come after the earlier arrest of three suspects in Spain, who are charged with distributing Mariposa and using it to hack into online bank accounts. The alleged East European VXers are suspected of developing the software for the Spaniards, Slovenian news agency STA reports.

Investigators reckon Mariposa compromised 12.7 million Windows PCs worldwide. Spanish police recovered stolen bank and login credentials of 800,000 people from systems seized during the arrest of three local suspects. ®