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Story URL: http://software.silicon.com/security/0,39024655,39118633,00.htm

Antivirus expert 'gutted' to have missed Gigabyte arrest
Have you ever returned from holiday only to discover that your arch nemesis has been arrested while you were sunning yourself?

By Will Sturgeon

Published: Wednesday 25 February 2004

We've all returned from holiday to some kind of surprise - from the mild 'oops I forgot to cancel the milk' to the nightmarish 'we've been burgled'.

But very few of us can claim to have returned from holiday to find that our arch nemesis has been arrested.

That was the surprise awaiting antivirus expert and Sophos mouthpiece Graham Cluley, who returned from a holiday in Mexico this week to discover that virus writer and long time thorn in his side 'Gigabyte' had been arrested following a string of anti-Cluley-themed virus outbreaks.

At the time, silicon.com commented on the irony that the arrest should have taken place while Cluley was enjoying R&R and he has now spoken out about his disappointment at not being around to watch it all go down.

"I couldn't believe it when I heard the news," he told silicon.com. "Of all the times to spend a week in Mexico."

However, Cluley also expressed surprise at how long it had finally taken to arrest the Belgian female who had tormented the man she renamed 'Graham Clueless'.

"I understand that Gigabyte has brought her downfall upon herself. Just two days before her arrest, she went onto a Dutch radio station and talked about her virus writing," he said.

"In earlier media interviews she has allowed herself to be filmed, albeit in half-shadow and even allowed her old computer teacher to be interviewed and named. It was never going to be rocket science to discover who she was; the only real question is why the authorities took so long to get around to it."

Despite her arrest, Cluley isn't prepared to call a truce and seized the opportunity for more point-scoring.

"Gigabyte was far from the genius she tried to portray herself as," he said. "A smarter virus writer would never have been caught, and never let her media vanity rule her head."

Cluley also turned his scorn on the wider virus-writing community, adding that the reaction of Gigabyte's legion of virus-writing fans and wannabes to her arrest has been similar to that of "teenage girls when they heard Take That were splitting up".

However, an insight into the Cluley home life - which frankly silicon.com staff could have gone to our graves without finding out - involved the confession that Cluley's girlfriend used to put on a Low Countries accent and pretend to be the female virus writer. The mind boggles.