BRUSSELS – ‘Gigabyte’, the female virus writer arrested at her home in Belgium last week, was tracked down because she boasted about her work, it has emerged.

“It is normally incredibly difficult to track down virus writers, but when they start coming out and boasting about what they are doing they can often help us to find out where they are,” said Carole Theriault, an analysts with computer security firm Sophos.

Theriault says Gigabyte’s personal vendetta against Graham Cluley, one of her Sophos colleagues, probably led to her downfall.

Cluley apparently angered Gigabyte when he said most viruses were created by men.

This led her to dream up a series of computer nasties that ridiculed the virus expert.

One launched a quiz about Cluley called ‘Clueless’ on infected PCs. Another set off a game that required readers to knock Cluley’s head off.

But the fact that all of Gigabyte’s work had a common theme made it easier to track her down.

[Copyright Expatica News 2004]

Subject: Belgian news