The recent Mariposa ‘botnet’, which infected a network of nearly 13 million computers and was busted in Spain earlier this week, has not affected Malta in an obvious manner as yet, according to police sources.

Knowing the nature of these types of attacks, however, it would not be surprising to find that it was present in Malta, but as yet remained hidden, and some individuals were participating unknowingly, the sources confirmed.

Actions as simple as opening an email or not having the adequate and appropriate antivirus software or spyware was enough to make someone susceptible, the sources said.

The 13 million computers are spread over some 190 countries. These have been infected with this virus which allows the hacker to gain access to PCs and personal information, such as credit card details.

The computers affected included those inside the office of more than 40 major banks, as well as a number of high profile companies.

It is believed that three Spanish men are behind the botnet, which exploited vulnerability in the Internet Explorer web browser, and also worked by transferring via infected USB sticks.

The men are also said to have limited experience, and one of them was traced when he failed to disguise his IP address, before logging on to the botnet network, making it possible for police to track him down.

The last major cyber spying operation that was uncovered was in March 2009. Called GhostNet, it was based mainly in the People’s Republic of China, and infiltrated systems belonging to embassies and other government departments in some 103 countries.

The cyber spying was operated by a malicious software programme, called ghost RAT, which had the power to pilfer sensitive documents, take over web cams as well as control the infected computer.