Security software firm Internet Security Systems (ISS) on Thursday declared victory, saying that a new hacker tool that scans for paths into public networks was responsible. But many other security professionals--including those at Intrusec, the company that originally tracked down the hard-to-find code--believe that ISS jumped the gun.

The real culprit likely is still out there, said David J. Meltzer, founder and chief technology officer of Roswell, Ga.-based Intrusec.

"It is possible that (the tool's code) is causing some of this traffic," Meltzer said. However, he added, key differences between the data that was captured by security professionals and data created by the code suggest that the hacker tool isn't the original culprit. "That would leave us to believe that there is something out there that is creating the (data) packets that isn't this Trojan."

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