Slovenian hackers investigated in Mariposa botnet probe

According to regional press reports, three Slovenian men are being investigated as part of an international probe into one of the world’s biggest botnets, which compromised millions of computers world.

Homes have been searched and “a large number” of computers seized in the Slovenian city of Maribor, where the young men attended the faculty of computer science. The FBI, working with local law enforcement agencies, believe that the men played a key role in the Mariposa botnet.

The Mariposa botnet (named after the Spanish word for “butterfly”) was shut down in late 2009, and arrests were subsequently made in Spain of hackers using nicknames such as “Netkairo”, “jonyloleante” and “ostiator”.

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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.