Security threats Toolkit

Trojan suspect held in Spain

Dan Ilet ZDNet.co.uk

Published: 20 Jan 2005 13:25 GMT

The Spanish Civil Guard has detained a 37-year-old man in Madrid who is suspected of writing and distributing a Trojan horse across peer-to-peer networks.

Police said that the Trojan allowed the unnamed man to steal confidential banking information from his victims and spy on people through their Webcams.

"In Operation Tic Tac, the Civil Guard has detained a programmer accused of creating and spreading a computer virus that could have affected thousand of computers worldwide. The prisoner was able to access key banking details and Webcams, recording everything in the field of vision the camera occupied," said the Spanish Civil Guard in a statement earlier this week.

Police were alerted when a man in Alicante noticed that his computer was behaving strangely.

The police said they found the suspect in his apartment spying on people through their Webcams.