why it has taken them so long to get this going? Is it a case of incrememental evolution in malware, as in only bringing in what they need to at this particular time to get around security software? Or did it genuinely take them this long to spot this vulnerability? Or, worse case scenario, has it been in use for a long, long time by one of those coders/hackers with a genuine flair for coding, and the intelligence to author their own rather than a skiddie buying someone elses code?

I don't like any of these scenarios myself...

It's like the coca trade, it used to be fun back in the day (mid to late 70's) before the amounts of money involved enticed the organised crime gangs into the business, and the good ol' US of A declared it's "war on drugs" which did more to promote their use than anything the actual dealers could ever have thought of, let alone been able to implement.

Hacking used to be fun, and about the challenge and your own abilities. Now it's for money, and is rapidly becoming the tool of choice for gangs (particularly, it seems, from Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Bloc, with China catching on at an exponential rate), simultaneously being utilised more and more by the (in)security forces of the world.