T0rn creator arrested

A 21 year-old man has been arrested following a year-long investigation into the creation of the Linux T0rn virus.

A spokesman for Scotland Yard said that the man, who has yet to be identified, was charged following an investigation by UK and US authorities.

Police arrested the man on Tuesday at his home in Surbiton, south west London, and removed his computer.

"Computer equipment was seized from a residential property and a 21 year-old man was arrested under the Computer Misuse Act 1990," said the spokesman. The man has been released on bail pending further investigation.

The arrest of virus writers is a rare victory for law enforcement, and the police have hailed this case as an important step.

T0rn was modified by a Chinese virus-writing group to form another virus known as Lion, which circulated for much of 2001 but did relatively little harm.

The virus was not as menacing as Code Red, SirCam and Nimda which caused hundreds of millions of dollars worth of damage to corporate computer networks last year.

Linux-based software systems account for just a small segment of the computing market.