On the same day as an eighteen year-old German lad was arrested for having created the Sasser virus - so another German, a twenty-one year-old programmer from Schoenau, was also seized by police under suspicion of having created the Phatbot Trojan. The man was released on bail after one week, and the arrest came as a result of information provided by the US authorities.

Now a new report proclaims to have established links between the Phatbot creator, believed to be known under the alias Axel G, with the theft of the 2 code from last year. Heise.de's investigative journalism allegedly dug up the following IRC log from a Half-Life 2 leak-related page, including the following comment from 'Ago', another alias for Axel G, the Phatbot instigator:

"[Download speed] suxx, especially from valve to germany... i coded myself my own sourcesafe client to get it at full speed... i only used a simple null-session to a pc in valves net, that wasnt directly controlled by valve."

Whether the links between these activities, carried out under various names at various times can be affirmed conclusively is anyone's guess at this stage, but regardless of the truth behind these claims it is interesting to receive such an insight into the world of cyber crime.

By Luke Guttridge

Comments

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  1. someleechman Unregistered 5 years ago

    man...the way things are going...this whole mess could be a great made for tv movie...right?

  2. sKyZ Unregistered 5 years ago

    who cares if phatbot is around.. get over it.. tons of bots and exploits are around.. tell bill to get off his butt and start coding a secure OS

  3. blady bla Unregistered 5 years ago

    is any one there

  4. tom Unregistered 5 years ago

    hello

  5. pid Unregistered 5 years ago

    what r u doing tom

  6. tom Unregistered 5 years ago

    im tom

  7. alex Unregistered 5 years ago

    alex is not what you just said you panda raping chipmonk

  8. alex Unregistered 5 years ago

    i like a bit of nazi up my arse

  9. tom Unregistered 5 years ago

    is that so alex?

  10. alex Unregistered 5 years ago

    yes. that is so

  11. tom Unregistered 5 years ago

    you spelt your name wrong alex

  12. jamie Unregistered 5 years ago

    change to the first one on da list

  13. the queen Unregistered 5 years ago

    you all smell

  14. ICEMAN Unregistered 5 years ago

    AHAHHAHAHA

  15. armpit of the queen Unregistered 5 years ago

    I smell, and so do Germans.

  16. MenZa Unregistered 5 years ago

    mkay...

  17. Tom (2) Unregistered 4 years ago

    you stole my name!

  18. hobomxpothepe Unregistered 4 years ago

    Shut up you all friggin hobo men!!! Hobo rules earth!!! Germans are suckers!!!

  19. german hacker Unregistered 3 years ago

    german has world best hackers

  20. Overseer Unregistered 2 years ago

    Its true i know a couple of german hackers, there pretty nice avrage guys, also it would seem linux prevails agenst MS again.... its a shame hl2 got leaked because it was such an epic a dark storyline, ah well the yanks would probably call a PTA or somthing over it lol.

  21. somethinghorrible Unregistered 2 years ago

    everyone must die

  22. TicTac Unregistered 1 year ago

    Hi