[ISN] Peeping Taiwanese Trojan author is arrested

[InfoSec News]

http://news.zdnet.co.uk/internet/0,39020369,39156052,00.htm

Munir Kotadia
ZDNet UK
May 28, 2004

A Taiwanese man has been arrested after admitting to authoring the
Peep Trojan horse.

Taiwanese police have arrested a man for writing and distributing a
Trojan that was apparently used by Chinese hackers to steal and
destroy information on government-owned computers in Taiwan.

Wang An-ping, 30, an engineer from Kaohsiung, has admitted to writing
Peep, which allows hackers to steal and destroy data stored on
infected computers. According to the China Post, Wang spent his free
time designing software and had intended to sell Peep for commercial
purposes, but eventually decided to give it away for free on his Web
site.

Lin Chieh-lung, a spokesman for Taiwan's Internet crime investigation
taskforce, said Wang may simply have been trying to show off his
skills, but he should have known the consequences of marketing such a
program. Chieh-lung said Wang placed his program on popular hackers'
Web sites and encouraged people to download it.

Although Wang admitted he wrote the Trojan and was in contact with
some Chinese software developers, he denied any knowledge of the
alleged attacks carried out on the Taiwanese government's systems.

Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant for antivirus firm Sophos,
said it was unlikely that a 30-year-old computer engineer would not
realise the consequences of writing and distributes a malicious piece
of code.

"If found guilty it's quite possible that he will receive a tough
sentence -- up to five years -- particularly as it is being suggested
that the Trojan may have left open a backdoor for Chinese hackers to
exploit," Cluley said.

This is the second virus-related charge this week. On Wednesday, a
16-year-old Canadian teenager was charged with "fraudulently using a
computer" and "mischief against data" by the Royal Canadian Mounted
Police. The teenager is suspected of writing the Randex worm.