Japanese virus writer arrested.. again

According to media reports, a previously convicted Japanese virus writer has been arrested over allegations that he has again distributed a virus.

27-year-old Masato Nakatsuji is accused of writing malware known locally as “ika-tako” (squid-octopus) which was spread via the Winny peer-to-peer file-sharing network, changing the icons of infected computers to those of an orange cartoon octopus.

Nakatsuji is said to have told investigating police officers that he infected approximately 50,000 computers with the malware.

What’s particularly fascinating about this case is that this isn’t the first time that Masato Nakatsuji’s has caught the attention of the computer crime authorities.

Back in 2008, Nakatsuji became the first virus writer ever arrested in Japan after distributing the…

Read more in my article on the Naked Security website.

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Graham Cluley •   @gcluley

Graham Cluley is a veteran of the anti-virus industry having worked for a number of security companies since the early 1990s when he wrote the first ever version of Dr Solomon's Anti-Virus Toolkit for Windows. Now an independent security analyst, he regularly makes media appearances and is an international public speaker on the topic of computer security, hackers, and online privacy. Follow him on Twitter at @gcluley, on Mastodon at @[email protected], or drop him an email.