waledac

Microsoft legal punch may change botnet battles forever

With court backing and a novel use of a civil procedure, Microsoft appears to be close to obliterating the Waledac spam botnet, changing the way online criminal operations are defeated.

A magistrate judge in federal court in Virginia is expected to recommend within days that the judge hearing Microsoft's case grant a default judgment, Richard Boscovich, a senior Microsoft attorney told CNET on Wednesday.

This would mean that the 276 Web domains deployed as Waledac command-and-control servers to provide instructions to thousands of infected computers would be forfeited to Microsoft, effectively shutting down the botnet for good, he said. … Read more

Microsoft says it decimated Waledac botnet

Microsoft has said that its legal action against Waledac domains has "decimated" the eponymous botnet.

Microsoft on Monday said that research indicated that commands to Waledac zombies had ceased, following the granting of a temporary restraining order that cut off over 270 domains suspected of channeling command and control instructions. The legal action and associated operations were code-named Operation b49.

"Early data from Microsoft and other researchers indicate that our actions have effectively decimated communications within the Waledac bot network," said Jeff Williams, director of the Microsoft Malware Protection Center, in a blog post on Monday. &… Read more

Botnets cause surge in February spam

Spam now accounts for close to 90 percent of all e-mail worldwide due to a surge in February, according to Symantec.

Two botnets named Grum and Rustock helped push spam levels up 5.5 percent in February over the prior month, according to the security firm's report (PDF). After doing business as usual over the past year, Grum suddenly sprang to life in February, increasing the amount of spam it generated by 51 percent. As a result, the botnet is now to blame for 26 percent of all global spam.

Rustock also surged last month, pushing up global spam … Read more

With legal nod, Microsoft ambushes Waledac botnet

Microsoft is intent on eliminating the Waledac botnet and is using the legal system to help.

Tim Cranton, Microsoft's associate general counsel, wrote Thursday on the company's blog that Microsoft has been shutting down Waledac by working with technology partners and taking legal action.

In response to a complaint filed by Microsoft, a federal judge issued on Monday a temporary restraining order to shut down 227 Internet domains believed to be run by cybercriminals spreading the Waledac spambot.

This week's legal takedown of Waledac, known internally at Microsoft as "Operation b49," came after months of … Read more

Waledac worm targeting July 4 spam offensive

The Waledac worm is gearing up for a spam campaign related to the July 4 holiday, a security researcher warned on Thursday.

Researchers analyzing the code of the worm, which has been deploying updates to previously compromised PCs, have discovered that at least 18 domain names have been registered related to fireworks and Independence Day that will be used to trick people into visiting a malicious Web site, said Pierre-Marc Bureau, a senior researcher at antivirus vendor ESET.

Starting any time now and lasting through the weekend, the spam e-mails will arrive in in-boxes with a message urging the recipient … Read more

Researchers say Conficker is all about the money

The Conficker worm that has infected millions of Windows-based computers will likely be used to send spam and steal data much like one of the nastiest botnets on the Internet does, researchers said on Thursday after finding links between the two worms.

A week after failing to do anything but snore, the much hyped Conficker worm was roused from its slumber on Wednesday, with infected computers transmitting updates via peer-to-peer and dropping a mystery payload onto PCs. Researchers suspect that the payload program may be a keystroke logger, a spam generator, or both.

Conficker now also tries to connect to … Read more