LJUBLJANA, Slovenia — An FBI official said Friday a two-year-long multinational investigation led them to nab a 23-year-old Slovenian, who allegedly created a malicious software code that infected 12 million computers worldwide.
Stephen Gaudin, a legal attache of the FBI to the U.S. Embassy in Vienna, told reporters that the cooperation between the FBI and Slovenian and Spanish forces was “unparalleled.” Slovenian police detained and questioned the man, identified only by his code name Iserdo, 10 days ago, in the northwestern industrial city of Maribor. He was released after questioning, but police say they have made sure he cannot tamper with evidence or flee the country.
The investigation is ongoing and Iserdo was not formally indicted.
He is suspected of selling the malware to the operators of the Spanish Mariposa botnet — a network of infected computers — which stole credit cards and online banking credentials.
The Mariposa botnet, which has been dismantled, was easily one of the world’s biggest, infecting hundreds of companies and at least 40 major banks in 190 countries since appearing in December 2008.
Toni Kastelic, the head of the Slovenian police cyber-crime department, said police also questioned another person and confiscated 75 computers in seven house searches.
Kastelic said they were tipped off by the FBI in April.
He didn’t identify the chief suspect, Iserdo — which, read backwards, means “salvation” in Slovenian.
