Unconfirmed sources are claiming that the writer of Blackhole, a piece of malicious software that hackers install on web servers that then automatically infect personal computers when users visit a tainted site, has been arrested.

Known in hacking circles as "Paunch" the hacker has been on the copper’s most wanted list for a while. Blackhole is an arsenal of tools for attacking PCs, each of which look for holes in computer code. It is clever because it automatically probes potential victims looking for a way in, then attacks when it finds a weakness.

Blackhole's developers regularly update the product so that customers can exploit the newest vulnerabilities uncovered in PCs. It can hit Windows and Internet Explorer, Adobe Reader and Flash, and Oracle's Java.

Officials in Russia have not confirmed the arrest yet but Europol in the Hague said that the European crime-fighting agency "had been informed that a high-level suspected cyber criminal" was arrested in Russia.