Authorities have identified 16 more suspects in the case of the Zotob computer worm - which crashed networks at major U.S. corporations earlier this month - in what could be the biggest virus bust in history, security experts said Tuesday, Red Herring reports. Two men linked to the worm were arrested four days earlier in Turkey and Morocco.

The FBI said the Turkish authorities have identified 16 more individuals as suspects in the recent Zotob and the Mytob worm attacks. An FBI update on the case also revealed that gangs of virus and worm writers could be behind Zotob and other malicious software.

"Increasingly, worms and viruses are being written to steal confidential data from innocent peoples' computers, hijack resources, or launch spam or denial-of-service attacks," said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant for Sophos, a security consultancy company.

According to an FBI spokesman, the 16 being investigated likely don't have direct links to the creation and dissemination of the worms; "it looks more like they are associated with a credit card theft ring" possibly linked to the worms, he is quoted by Computerworld as saying.

The news is further evidence of the growing alliance between hackers and those seeking to profit from cybercrime, according to Cluley.