Farid Essebar, 18, from Morocco, and Atilla Ekici, 21, from Turkey, are believed to have been responsible for the creation of the "Zotob" computer worm that two weeks ago disrupted services on the media companies' networks.
According to reports, Ekici, who uses the screen moniker “Coder”, is thought to have paid Essebar, aka “DiabI0”, to write the virus. The pair will be tried in their own countries, but with evidence provided by the FBI.
The Zotob worm takes advantage of a vulnerability in some versions of Windows relating to Plug and Play – a facility that simplifies the process of adding hardware to PCs. Microsoft had warned of the flaw in early August and issued a patch to protect against attack; but Zotob and its variants hit the internet within days of the announcement, causing computers to constantly reboot and slowing down computer networks.
The worm also makes it possible for infected computers to be taken over or hijacked by a third party.
However, Microsoft reckons that the damage inflicted by the worm has actually been less than with other network worms, in part because more customers are taking proper security precautions.
The investigation appears to have been a team effort between the FBI, Microsoft and the authorities in Morocco and Turkey, following on from earlier work into the Mytob and Rbot viruses, which the pair are also thought to have released.
The investigation is continuing.