Virus writer punished - with £57 fine

Russian police have collared a virus writer and made him pay for his crimes - a whole £57.

The malware maker, Eugene Suchkov, was convicted of posting two virus exploits on the internet - Stepan and Gastropod - as well as sharing the code necessary to make new variants with the public at large. His malware misdeeds landed him with a 3,000 rouble fine - just under £57.

Suchkov, who went under the pseudonym 'whale', was part of the Russian virus writing gang 29A, whose other virus writing antics include creating the proof of concept code for the first mobile phone virus, Cabir.

Another member of the 29A gang, known as Benny, has learned how to make money from his virus writing - Benny has landed a job with a security firm, working on Czech firm Zoner Software's antivirus programs.

It's not the first time an ex-virus writer has been snapped up by a security firm. Sven Jaschan - the German teenager responsible for 70 per cent of virus infections in the first half of this year, according to antivirus firm Sophos - has been snapped up by firewall company Securepoint.