New Russian Botnet Tries To Kill Rivals

alphadogg writes "An upstart Trojan horse program has decided to take on its much-larger rival by stealing data and then removing the malicious program from infected computers. Security researchers say that the relatively unknown Spy Eye toolkit added this functionality just a few days ago in a bid to displace its larger rival, known as Zeus. The feature, called "Kill Zeus," apparently removes the Zeus software from the victim's PC, giving Spy Eye exclusive access to usernames and passwords. Zeus and Spy Eye are both Trojan-making toolkits, designed to give criminals an easy way to set up their own "botnet" networks of password-stealing programs. These programs emerged as a major problem in 2009, with the FBI estimating last October that they have caused $100 million in losses."

Comments

XKCD was there first

[thegameiam]

How long will it be until this is a reality?

Re:XKCD was there first

[jgtg32a]

Is it bad, that when someone posts an XKCD link I only click on it only to confirm that it was the one I though it was?

Re:Let the botnet wars begin!

[poena.dare]

"What could be better than botnets trying to destroy each other?"

Well, on the surface it looks good, but before long they'll be collaborating and eventually they'll learn to mate and produce better offspring. Then we'll have to amend the Defense of Marriage Act to keep botnets from getting married and start enforcing Don't Ask Don't Tell for networks.

It's amazing how many people don't know that SkyNet's parents were homosexual transvestite liberal russian hackers that smoked heavily and collected guns.

dARIUS qUAN predicted all of this. We should have listened!

Re:Botnets fighting botnets...

[grapeape]

The problem is ethics...both would concidered intruders even if one is of the White Hat variety. Unfortunately it seems impossible to find ethically against something unethical so instead we all just sit around and complain about it while the problem gets worse.

Re:Oh, you kids these days, with your Intartubes

[TheLink]

If you write malware in Java you could keep them in jars too...

As long as its not guns

[ratboy666]

I'll make some popcorn and we can all enjoy the show.

But seriously, only 100M in losses?

I don't have the figures at hand, but "McAfee forecasts $1.8 billion in revenue for 2009". I would put the cost of the extra security in; the US did that when prosecuting Gary McKinnon, so there appears to be precedent.

Re:Why is this news?

[Conchobair]

I think there is a guy that just goes around from article to article asking "Why is this news?" on each of them.

If it was a local report about a murder, he'd show up and say "Why is this news? People have been getting murdered for several years now." Or if if was a report on a politicians speech, he'd say, "Why is this news? Politicians have been telling us lies for years and years now."

Re:So It's an AI?

[clone53421]

And you are doing exactly what you evolved to do. Get resources, attract a female, make offspring...

I am?