botnet

More than 600,000 Macs infected with Flashback botnet

More than half a million Macs are infected with the Flashback Trojan, a malware package designed to steal personal information, according to a Russian antivirus company.

The company -- Dr. Web -- originally reported today that 550,000 Macintosh computers were infected by the growing Mac botnet. But later in the day, Dr. Web malware analyst Sorokin Ivan announced on Twitter that the number of Macs infected with Flashback had increased to 600,000, with 274 of those based in Cupertino, Calif.

@mikko, at this moment botnet Flashback over 600k, include 274 bots from Cupertino and special for you Mikko … Read more

110,000 PC-strong Kelihos botnet sidelined

A new version of the Kelihos spamming botnet has been sidelined by using the peer-to-peer distribution mechanism to basically hijack it, researchers announced today.

The botnet, which was used mostly to distribute spam for Canadian pharmaceutical firms but also stole bitcoin wallets containing virtual currency, was about three times larger than an earlier variant, according to CrowdStrike, the security firm that worked with Kaspersky, Dell SecureWorks, and Honeynet Project to shut down the botnet.

The researchers reverse-engineered the malware code and wrote their own software that rerouted infected computers to communicate with servers controlled by researchers and law enforcement rather … Read more

The long arm of Microsoft tries taking down Zeus botnets

Microsoft and financial services organizations, with an escort of U.S. Marshals, seized command-and-control servers Friday to take down botnets allegedly used to steal more than $100 million using an estimated 13 million computers infected with the Zeus malware.

After raids in Scranton, Pa., and Lombard, Ill., "some of the worst known Zeus botnets were disrupted by Microsoft and our partners worldwide," Microsoft announced Sunday night in a post by Richard Domingues Boscovich, senior attorney with Microsoft's Digital Crimes Unit.

The defendants allegedly installed the Zeus malware and close relatives called Ice-IX and SpyEye onto victims' computers, … Read more

FCC chairman calls on ISPs to help fight cyber attacks

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski wants Internet service providers to work with government and security experts to adopt voluntary standards to protect consumers from cyber attacks.

On Wednesday, the chairman gave a speech in Washington, D.C., in which he discussed voluntary measures that ISPs and other technology companies could take to help protect the public from three major cyber threats: botnets, domain name fraud, and IP hijacking.

"Cyber attacks pose a critical threat to our economic future and national security," he said in his speech. "If you shut down the Internet, you'd shut down … Read more

Spam continues to dip but malware marches merrily on

Spam may be down, but cybercriminals are keeping busy launching more sophisticated attacks (PDF), according to McAfee's latest Threats Report.

Looking at 2011's final quarter, McAfee found that spam hit its lowest level in years, especially across popular targets such as the U.K., Brazil, Argentina, and South Korea. But the U.S. and Germany saw their rates inch up slightly.

And though spam levels have declined overall, junk mail is still a clear danger because of the increase in spearphishing, or more targeted attacks. In years past, spammers sent their payloads to a slew of random addresses, … Read more

Kelihos botnet makes a comeback

A once-dead botnet has been resurrected and resumed its spamming ways.

The original Kelihos botnet compromised only about 41,000 computers but was capable of sending 3.8 billion spam e-mails each day promoting unregulated pharmaceuticals, fraudulent stock scams and, in some cases, sites dealing with sexual exploitation of children. Microsoft and Kaspersky Lab took down the malware last September using a "sinkhole" technique that tricked the infected computers into getting their instructions from a computer the companies controlled.

However, while the technique was effective at disabling the botnet quickly, it was merely a temporary fix as many … Read more

Microsoft's Kelihos botnet suspect says he's innocent

The man pegged by Microsoft as the mastermind behind the Kelihos botnet, says he's not guilty, according to a report.

The BBC said today that Andrey N. Sabelnikov, a former employee of antivirus company Agnitum, had contacted the news agency to say that he was "surprised and shocked" by Microsoft's claim and would "prove his innocence." The BBC also quoted a blog post by Sabelnikov that said he was "absolutely not guilty":

I was very surprised and shocked to read in the press that I was being accused of a grievous crime … Read more

Microsoft identifies suspected Kelihos botnet author

Four months after taking down the Kelihos botnet, Microsoft today identified the man it believes was behind the massive infection designed to deliver spam and steal data.

In an amended complaint (PDF) filed today with the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, the software giant accused Andrey N. Sabelnikov, a resident of St. Petersburg, Russia, of writing the code for and participating in the creation of the Kelihos malware. The complaint further alleges that Sabelnikov used the malware to control and nurture the Kelihos botnet.

Kelihos comprised about 41,000 infected computers worldwide and was capable … Read more

Android's a malware magnet, says McAfee

Malware targeted toward Android devices continues to surge, says a new report from McAfee, pushing 2011 to become the busiest year in history for both mobile and general malware.

The amount of malware infecting Android devices during the third quarter grew almost 37 percent from the second quarter, according to McAfee's Third-Quarter Threats Report (PDF). Android's growing demand among consumers has made it an increasingly ripe and inviting target for cybercriminals.

How inviting? Almost all new mobile malware over the third quarter was aimed squarely at Android. Legacy software being what it is, though, among all mobile platforms, … Read more