We Know Who's Behind Storm Worm

jmason reminds us of a story from a few weeks back that got little attention, adding "This doesn't seem to be just bluster; as far as I can tell, everyone who knows the RBN now agrees that this seems likely." Brian Krebs's Security Fix blog at the Washington Post carried a story about the Storm worm containing some pretty staggering allegations. "Dmitri Alperovitch [of Secure Computing] said federal law enforcement officials who need to know have already learned the identities of those responsible for running the Storm worm network, but that US authorities have thus far been prevented from bringing those responsible to justice due to a lack of cooperation from officials in St. Petersburg, Russia, where the Storm worm authors are thought to reside. In a recent investigative series on cyber crime featured on washingtonpost.com, St. Petersburg was fingered as the host city for one of the Internet's most profligate and cyber-crime enabling operation — the Russian Business Network. Alperovitch blames the government of Russian President Vladimir Putin and the political influence of operatives within the Federal Security Service (the former Soviet KGB) for the protection he says is apparently afforded to cybercrime outfits such as RBN and the Storm worm gang. 'The right people now know who the Storm worm authors are,' Alperovitch said. 'It's incredibly hard because a lot of the FSB leadership and Putin himself originate from there, where there are a great deal of people with connections in high places.'"

Comments

Get the MPAA, I mean US government, to take action

[dmarti]

Since it's just regular people's computers getting attacked, no big deal. If you want the US government to take action, just rent some time on the botnet to distribute copies of a movie. Threats don't count until they affect the people who have Senators' private lines on speed dial.

"Putin himself comes from there"

[Master of Transhuman]

Oh, please. This is just another bullshit neocon attack on Putin because he chased the oligarchs out of Russia and refused to kowtow to Bush on Iran and the phony European "missile defense" crap.

How much money stands to NOT be given to a bunch of war profiteering Bush/Cheney cronies if the US doesn't put a missile defense in Europe? Compare that to however much the Storm Worm takes in. There's no contest. Let alone how much money the oil companies stand to make if Bush starts a war with Iran and the oil price spikes to $200/barrel.

This is a joke.