According to Czech site viry.cz, police have interviewed a 22 year-old Brno resident believed to be the virus writer known as Benny in connection with the Slammer worm, which targeted Microsoft SQL Server in January 2003.
29A, which takes its name from the number 666 in hexadecimal notation, said on its web site that Benny left the group on November 17. Members known as Whale and dis69 have also left this month, the group said.
Benny’s apprehension followed his hiring, earlier this month, as lead developer of Zoner Anti-Virus, from Czech outfit Zoner Software. The controversial move was defended by Zoner, which said Benny limited himself to writing proof-of-concept code.
29A, by its own admission, operates in a gray area. The group is generally against creating malware with destructive payloads, and against releasing them into the wild, though it says it has no strict rules against such conduct.
We code viruses for the fun of it, because it’s our hobby, not because we want to harm other people or to get ourselves into trouble, the group says on its web site.
29A was most recently linked to Cabir, the first Bluetooth-aware piece of mobile malware, which existed first as a proof-of-concept, but was later discovered in the wild in Asia, spreading between Symbian phones.
Benny was also the first virus writer to create malicious code specifically for Windows 2000, which he released two weeks before Microsoft’s operating system. He is also linked to a .NET virus, and a virus that could target both Windows and Linux machines.
Benny’s predicament follows the news that a Russian court found Eugene Sucharov, believed to be 29A’s Whale, guilty of releasing two low-impact viruses. Sucharov was fined the rouble equivalent of about $100.
