A man suspected of developing and distributing the Spy Eye
computer virus to criminals across the world appeared for his
arraignment in federal court Friday afternoon in downtown Atlanta.
24-year-old Hamza Bendelladj was apprehended in Thailand in January,
after more than a year of evading authorities. The U.S. Attorney's
office in Atlanta said Bendelladj is believed to have commanded and
controlled the virus from a computer server in north Georgia and
therefore faced his arraignment in Atlanta.
According to Paul Royal, a professor in the Georgia Tech Information
Security Center, the virus only impacts PCs and not Macintosh operating
systems. It can be contracted simply by visiting a trusted site which
may have been infected with the virus.
"It makes it easy for the bad guy to defraud people of his or her
money," said Royal. "It's basically a piece of malicious software that
will take control of the victim's computer. And it is installed without
their knowledge."
Once installed, the virus can reconfigure a trusted bank's website to
require personal identification information upon login. Once that PIN
is given, the person controlling the virus software can use the
information to hijack money.
Even though Bendelladj has been apprehended, Royal said the virus is
believed to have been sold to hundreds of criminals worldwide and is
still in use.
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