Virus linked to al-Qaida

A second variant of the Atak worm, which goes to sleep to avoid detection by antivirus software, has been linked to an al-Qaida sympathiser who once threatened to release a powerful worm if the US attacked Iraq.

Romanian antivirus company Bitdefender claims the worm's author has signed his nickname into an encrypted part of the worm's code.

Mihai Radu, communications manager at BitDefender, said the virus, discovered on Friday, is signed by Melhacker, which is the moniker of a Malaysia-based coder called Vladimor Chamlkovic, who in 2002 threatened to release an "uber-worm" if the US attacked Iraq.

Mikko Hypponen, director of antivirus research at F-Secure, said it is possible that Melhacker wrote Atak.B but that doesn't mean it has anything to do with al-Qaida.

"I think there's no proof anywhere that Melhacker is in any way associated with al-Qaida. He might want to be, though," said Hypponen.

Hypponen said Melhacker has released several viruses, including Nedal (Laden backwards) and Blebla.

Munir Kotadia writes for ZDNet UK