Der Spiegel magazine had reported over the weekend that he was being sought by German police, the FBI and Russian police. But he claimed his intentions were motivated by a desire to improve Web security. In the Internet community, scores of anonymous participants in chat rooms have reportedly come forward claiming responsibility for the attacks. And in keeping with the fractious nature of the weird hacker subculture, some have fingered rivals. Some experts believe the attacks are the work of a small group of three to six hackers in their late teens to early 20s.
Zombies refer to computers taken over by hackers to launch coordinated attacks on major Web sites.
Frank Koblun, director of consumer e-commerce at HMV, confirmed that the Royal Canadian Mounted Police had been called in to investigate the Canadian incident, which occurred on 07 Feb 2000. In a related matter, a forensics examination of net traffic is said to be focusing on university computers in California, Oregon, and Germany. There continues to be a divergence of opinion about the sophistication of last week's attacks. The entire matter remains under investigation by several U.S. agencies. Tomorrow, a major White House summit of computer industry leaders is scheduled to take in Washington, DC .