Fear and loathing in the Mariposa aftermath

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When the Mariposa botnet was uncovered and shut down just before Christmas 2009, the security experts involved would have been forgiven for thinking it was the end of that particular saga.

But even after the arrests of three men in March this year, the story was not yet over for a man who was at the centre of taking down the criminal ring.

Luis Corrons, technical director of PandaLabs, was a key player in the Mariposa narrative and deserves commendation for the part he played. After the arrests, however, he was tracked by men who claimed to have been the masterminds behind the operation and at one point even feared for his own safety.

The end is just the beginning

The end of Mariposa, the Spanish word for butterfly, was the start of a strange and occasionally disturbing part of Corrons’ life as an internet security guru.

In the months following his work helping bring down one of the world’s largest botnets, Corrons continued with his everyday duties, among other things posting regular updates on PandaLabs' security blog.

One day, as he awaited the arrival of a journalist to show around his workplace, Corrons walked past two innocuous looking men. They turned to him and asked: “Hey, aren’t you Luis Corrons?”

Slightly taken aback, Corrons simply confirmed who he was. Astonishingly, the unassuming gentlemen identified themselves as Ostiator and Netkairo – the aliases of two of the arrested men involved in the Mariposa project.

Corrons would later learn that a mix-up at reception, confusing the two men for the expected journalist, had meant the pair had gained access to the PandaLabs building.

“I was scared. I was really scared,” Corrons told IT PRO.

“This can’t be real. At the time it was just those two guys and myself on the stairs, no one else around and I was like ‘uh oh, what is going to happen?’ I didn’t know what they were doing there... How the hell did they enter the building?”

“Maybe they wanted to teach me a lesson,” he added.

This was to be the beginning of a very odd relationship between the three men.

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