KEY POINTS:
A teenager being interviewed by police in Hamilton was allegedly an international cyber-crime leader whose services were used by other cyber criminals for their own malicious means.
New Zealand police Electronic Crime Laboratory manager Maarten Kleinjtes said the 18-year-old in question had written software that could infiltrate and gain control of computers, meaning others could use his services to create cyber havoc suiting their own means.
He said the suspect, whose cyber ID is 'AKILL', was known as a "botherder", and stood at the top of a botnet.
"He hires his services out to others, who make use of that botnet," Mr Kleinjtes told Radio New Zealand.
"If another cyber criminal wants to do an attack - in this case on the Pennsylvania University computers - then the botherder instructs all the machines that have been infected...to all at the same time attack these computers in Pennsylvania."
Mr Kleinjtes said New Zealand police had been investigating the activity for a few months along with the FBI in the United States, and Dutch authorities.
He said there were a number of people internationally involved in the alleged offending and it was not certain who, or how many people had profited from it.
About 1.3 million computers had been targeted in the botnet case in question and it was likely some of those were in New Zealand, Mr Kleinjtes said.
He said cyber criminals were not immune from detection.
"There is a misconception out there that people think they can remain anonymous on the internet, but that's not the case.
"Surveillance technology allows us to look at internet traffic between countries and work our way back actually where those instructions come from..."
He said AKILL was being "very co-operative and talking to us freely about what he was doing".
Mr Kleinjtes said cyber-crime was a big problem globally and he was aware of "turf wars" between cyber criminals.
For example, if one botherder had control of a cluster of computers, a second botherder might try to write software that enabled him to win control of that cluster.
"It's mainly driven by money now. It used to be the old hacker sitting in a dark room and trying to get into someone's computer and have a sort of trophy idea."
FBI assistant director James Finch emphasised on the agency's website that computer users needed to install anti-virus software and keep it updated.
Using firewalls and strong passwords helped make things difficult for botnetters.
Mr Kleinjtes said the software written for the botnet in question was encrypted and able to bypass anti-spy software guarding computers.
- NZPA
