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Botnet Business Model Comes to Life

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the watch-the-little-buggers-multiply dept.

consumerist writes "Researchers at the German Honeynet Project have discovered that a malicious hacker earned about $430 in a single day installing spyware on computers in the latest Windows worm attack. Within 24 hours, the IRC-controlled botnet hijacked more than 7,700 machines via the Windows Server Service vulnerability (MS06-040) and hosed the infected computers with the spyware from DollarRevenue. The botnet operator made between a penny and 30 cents for every piece of spyware installed. Add that to the spam rental and DDoS extortion money and we have a booming business."

2 of 192 comments (clear)

  1. Everybody wins! (sort of.) by JonTurner · · Score: 4, Interesting

    And for those persons affected, how much will they spend on antivirus software or tech service to remove the problems? A bunch. Think of how many people simply choose to buy a new system when their old one suddenly "wears out" (e.g. slows down due to virus/spyware infestation). Everybody's happy but the poor sap who owns the infected computer.

    The people most likely to be harmed are those who are the least likely to know what to do about it. What a shame.

  2. Did he get it? by Godji · · Score: 5, Interesting

    While those infections could theoretically amount to that much money, did anyone actually pay the guy?