Earlier this week, Spanish police arrested three men suspected of running the Mariposa botnet, which infected around 12.7 million systems to steal sensitive information.
The botnet, which was closed after joint efforts from organisations such as the Spanish authorities, Panda Security and the US Federal Bureau of Investigation, collected usernames and passwords for social networking and email accounts, credit card data and banking credentials.
Luis Corrons, technical director for Panda Security, applauded the arrests but pointed out that many more cybercriminals are still in operation.
'If you take a look from the outside, it is a drop in the ocean. It's cool, it's really good that we've got rid of this case, but these are just three guys that were doing cybercrime - there are thousands out there,' he commented.
Mr Corrons explained that it is quite difficult to arrest people involved with botnets, as they are hard to trace and tend to exploit the fact that the systems can be run over international borders.
The expert also claimed that the Mariposa botnet was particularly effective because it was able to spread itself through external devices and peer-to-peer networks.
The botnet, which was closed after joint efforts from organisations such as the Spanish authorities, Panda Security and the US Federal Bureau of Investigation, collected usernames and passwords for social networking and email accounts, credit card data and banking credentials.
Luis Corrons, technical director for Panda Security, applauded the arrests but pointed out that many more cybercriminals are still in operation.
'If you take a look from the outside, it is a drop in the ocean. It's cool, it's really good that we've got rid of this case, but these are just three guys that were doing cybercrime - there are thousands out there,' he commented.
Mr Corrons explained that it is quite difficult to arrest people involved with botnets, as they are hard to trace and tend to exploit the fact that the systems can be run over international borders.
The expert also claimed that the Mariposa botnet was particularly effective because it was able to spread itself through external devices and peer-to-peer networks.
