Surf fan who loves pizza: anonymous hero who halted cyber-attack

Known on Twitter as Malware Tech, the 22-year-old is a self-taught computer expert who reveals little about his true identity

His online avatar is a cat in sunglasses, he drools over surf pictures from Cornwall and orders three takeaway pizzas for lunch. But unlike other home-based computer whizzes trawling the internet for amusing Twitter memes and the latest hacking strategies, the 22-year-old known only as Malware Tech this weekend stopped a potentially devastating international cyber-attack in its tracks.

He wants to remain anonymous - not least because he may have got in the way of some serious international criminals - but is believed to be a malware expert working for a US company, living close to his beloved coastline in south-west England.