Fear and loathing in the Mariposa aftermath

Netkairo admitted to not being a part of the creation process, but claimed he and his partner in crime had come up with 99 per cent of the idea.

"I don't know what you think, but coming up with an idea is not that hard for me," was Corrons' succinct response.

Another PandaLabs worker was with Corrons at the meeting and took the opportunity to ask Netkairo why the pair had involved themselves in the scheme.

The latter explained that it had started as a hobby but when the money started to roll in, it became more serious and they couldn't stop. Netkairo was shown the door.

Cyber crime silliness

Based on their behaviour thus far, it appeared that Netkairo and Ostiator were not the ingenious crooks they had tried to present themselves as.

Netkairo's next step involved setting up his own blog, attacking PandaLabs software and even promising to tell "the whole truth about Mariposa". The latter entry was subsequently deleted and Corrons suspects this was because Netkairo's lawyer told him to take down the post as it perhaps essentially offered a public confession.

Around a week later, the wannabe cyber criminal boasted on his blog about being involved another botnet scheme. This post was also deleted.

Then, in early May, a Twitter account appeared with the name Iuis_Corrons with a capital 'I' rather than an 'L' (the PandaLabs employee's real Twitter name is Luis_Corrons).

Creepily, the newly created account began following the same people as the real Corrons and even used the same profile picture. Following this, posts on the Iuis_Corrons Twitter contained links to adult material. Fortunately, the micro-blogging service was quick to shut the account down.

Netkairo professed his innocence on one of Corrons' blogs, but the PandaLabs expert had his suspicions that the deed was somehow connected to the pair.

Tom Brewster

Tom Brewster is currently an associate editor at Forbes and an award-winning journalist who covers cyber security, surveillance, and privacy. Starting his career at ITPro as a staff writer and working up to a senior staff writer role, Tom has been covering the tech industry for more than ten years and is considered one of the leading journalists in his specialism.

He is a proud alum of the University of Sheffield where he secured an undergraduate degree in English Literature before undertaking a certification from General Assembly in web development.