'Trojan' Computer Virus Arrests

The first arrests in the battle against an online 'Trojan' virus which threatened to compromise thousands of UK computers have been made.

On 3 November, officers from the Metropolitan Police's Central e-Crime Unit (PCeU), assisted by Greater Manchester Police, arrested a man and woman, both aged 20 years, in Manchester for offences under the 1990 Computer Misuse Act and the 2006 Fraud Act.

The ZeuS or Zbot Trojan - a type of sophisticated malicious computer program, or malware - is believed to have infected and subsequently accessed personal information from tens of thousands of computers around the world.

It is believed the Trojan was configured in such a way that once installed in the systems of the infected computers, it recorded users' online bank account details and passwords, credit card numbers and other personal information, including passwords for social networking sites, before causing the computer to forward the data to servers under the control of the distributors.

ZeuS poses a sizeable threat to the safe use of the Internet and is being used increasingly by cyber-criminals worldwide - not simply those involved in this case. The arrests in connection with the malware represent some of the first in the world, and the first in Europe to combat the distribution and control of ZeuS.

Both suspects were interviewed by PCeU detectives and have been bailed for further in-depth enquiries to be completed.

Detective Inspector Colin Wetherill of the PCeU said: "The ZeuS Trojan is a piece of malware used increasingly by criminals to obtain huge quantities of sensitive information from thousands of compromised computers around the world. The arrests represent a considerable breakthrough in our increasing efforts to combat online criminality."

(GK/BMcC)