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Kournikova hacker suspect arrested

The 20-year-old man turned himself in to police and was then arrested.

He has been detained on suspicion of damaging computer programmes and property and if found guilty could face up to four years in prison.

His name has not been released, but police sources said he identified himself as OnTheFly, a self-confessed fan of the tennis star who owned to being the source of the bug on Tuesday and blamed e-mail users themselves for getting infected.

Seeking attention

Security experts say they are uncertain of the authenticity of OnTheFly who said the motivation for the act was "She [Kournikova] deserves some attention, doesn't she??".

The Excite (at) Home computer network also said it had traced the origin of the virus to one of its subscribers.

The virus arrives as an e-mail attachment named "AnnaKournikova.jpg.vbs" and carries the message "Hi: Check This!"

When users click on the attachment, hoping to see a photo of the 19-year-old tennis player, it activates a virus that attempts to send itself to all the people in the user's e-mail address book.

Virus experts say the bogus mail messages caused the biggest outbreak since the ILoveYou virus was released in the Philippines last May, causing tens of millions of dollars in damage worldwide.

Tempting offer

In the Kournikova confession, On The Fly - an admirer of the tennis star - said he or she was no programming expert, and had used a virus-writing tool downloadable from the internet.

"I have made this virus with a Visual Basic Worm Generator," the author wrote. "I have been using this because I don't know any programming languages."

Experts say it is not technical ingenuity but "social engineering" skills that separate the successful from the unsuccessful virus creator.

Last year a virus was able to infect corporations by disguising itself as a CV of a job applicant which unsuspecting employees would send on to human resources staff, said McAfee.com's April Goostree. She said the promised photo of Anna Kournikova worked in a similar way.

"It had the hook," she said. "The average guy was going to be too tempted not to open it up."