One of the two men arrested this weekend over the Zotob virus may be the writer of 20 other viruses, according to a UK-based security vendor Sophos.

Sophos has found a similar name in the code of 20 other viruses, including Mydoom-BG and many versions of the Mytob worm.

"To the untrained eye Mytob and Zotob can appear quite different: one group of viruses travels via email, the other primarily by exploiting a Microsoft security hole, " said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at Sophos.

The Russian-born Moroccan resident Farid Essebar, 18, also known as "Diabl0," was arrested by investigators last Thursday, less than two weeks after Zotob worms exploited recently-discovered Windows flaws to disrupt high profile organisations around the world.

Essebar was allegedly paid by his supposed accomplice, Atilla Ekici, to create the worms. Ekici has been arrested in Turkey by police investigating the case.

Of the 21, 20 are Mytob variants, ranging from Mytob.a to Mytob.gz; two of Sophos' most recent Top 10 list of viruses and worms appear to have been authored by Essebar, said Sophos.

"The Mytob worms have made a significant impact on the virus outbreak charts this year, so anything which may prevent future variants from being developed and released must be welcomed," Graham Cluley said .

Source: Xinhua/agencies