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Large Zeus Botnet Used For Financial Fraud

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the zeus-shorts-out-his-enemies dept.

An anonymous reader writes "A large Zeus version 2 botnet is being used to conduct financial fraud in the UK and is operated from Eastern Europe. The botnet appears to be controlling more than 100,000 infected computers. The criminals have been harvesting all manner of potentially lucrative and revenue-producing credentials — including online account IDs plus login information to banks, credit and debit card numbers, account types plus balances, bank statements, browser cookies, client side certificates, login information for email accounts and social networks, and even FTP passwords."

11 of 68 comments (clear)

  1. I predicted this by 1s44c · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Botnet herders have access to a very large number of computers, it was only a matter of time until they realized that the data on these computers is worth far more than the few pence they are making from Viagra spam and blackmailing gambling sites with DDOS attacks.

    1. Re:I predicted this by Delarth799 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Usually people who end up infected with this sort of stuff are the same people who ignore the patches and updates for the operating system, which usually happens to be windows. They almost never download and install the updates because it slows down their web browsing or whatever and to them they just see it as an annoyance. They likely have only the most basic of anti-virus software installed and never actually bother to run it, or they just don't have anything at all. They click on ads left and right because it says "free download" or some other crap and they probably wouldn't know that the advertisement for free wallpapers or whatever could do anything bad to their computers. The people who usually get infected are the same across the board sadly enough, they don't care to take a few basic steps to protect themselves and take the 20 minutes or so to just get some good anti-virus software on their computer and run it once a week or not open and download every advertisement they see and click on every link in every email they get which is probably where most of them get infected from. Now I am sure there are a small percentage who are very tech and security savvy and take good measures to stop infections and whatnot and something may have slipped through, but again that's likely a very small percentage.

    2. Re:I predicted this by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      They simply did like my wife and my mother-in-law, they pressed "okay" when the pop-up came asking them to install this weird executable that they didn't ask for. They just wanted the pop-up to go away, you see.

      Firewall, anti-virus, tea-timer, a host of other security measures... but you can't fix the user.

  2. Time to go back to phone banking by davidwr · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Hmm maybe we should go back to phone banking. It's not like phones can be easily hacked to sniff passwords.

    Oh wait, I forgot, we aren't in the 1980s any more. Nevermind.

    I think I'll do my business in person now. I'll just have to make sure the Russian Mafia doesn't set up a look-alike storefront down the street that looks like my bank's latest branch office.

    Sigh.

    Well, at least I know my currency is real.

    --
    Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
  3. Re:Always wondering... by Securityemo · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Too tiring - compared to what?

    --
    Emotions! In your brain!
  4. Re:That's awesome, but... by Securityemo · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Anyone doing that would be liable ten ways till Sunday. Anyone doing that to several banks would be called "A one-man super-hacker ring bent on destroying the western economic system."

    --
    Emotions! In your brain!
  5. Large? I'll show you large! by Impy+the+Impiuos+Imp · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Large Zeus Botnet Used For Financial Fraud

    The botnet appears to be controlling more than 100,000 infected computers

    Is that really large nowadays?

    --
    (-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
  6. Re:Oh no by datapharmer · · Score: 3, Insightful

    the browser support for ftp is typically intended for anonymous browsing. If you want full fledged support for ftp and its secured variants get an ftp client. I don't complain that filezilla doesn't browse the web well...

    --
    Get a web developer
  7. Re:Which OS? by cdrguru · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Yes, but can you install WeatherBug on your Linux live CD? No? Then is isn't going to be of any use to the millions of housewives and grannies that have installed it.

    Seriously, a live CD is only of use if you don't want to save anything. And no, you aren't going to get people to boot into an unfamiliar environment to do banking or whatnot.

    The "other" problem is that what is really needed is an Internet Appliance for these folks. No software installs, no executable anything. It does email, web browsing, media playing and not much more. Sure, you probably want capacity to add sanctioned applications over time but it needs to operate a whole lot like an iPad - which pretty much is an Internet Appliance. This would be reasonable and could be extremely secure. More secure than the iPad is today as it has way too much capability of having stuff added to it that could be used to exploit it.

    We have known about the problem for at least 10 years but nobody has done anything real about it. WebTV and a couple of other devices tried, but they were pretty restricted and oriented towards dial-up access at the time. The iPad is the first such appliance that has come along and it will be a while before it can be seen how effective it is and what the acceptance is. Clearly, we need some more wireless devices that are "appliances" that offer a limited walled garden approach and are designed with the idea of being hack-proof from the beginning.

  8. Re:Pardon me, I have to ask... by jbeach · · Score: 4, Insightful

    It seems clear to my personal experience, and friends of mine who are in computer security, that Os X and Linux are orders of magnitude more secure than Windows.

    While I'm sure OS X and Linux can be exploited, I think we'd all be far safer if they were adopted to anywhere near the ubiquity of windows. And who knows? That may be soon, if Google apps and other productivity software is available for free or cheap as compared to Windows, and its current lock on business drone software.

    --
    The Invisible Hand of the Free Market is what punches workers in the nuts.
  9. Re:Which OS? by fwarren · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Yes I did. I was not required to learn anything at all about the engine of the car. There is not even a requirement to understand the lights that say "check engine" or "oil". How many RPM's are bad for the car? What should my tire pressure be? How do I open the hood? None of those things are requirements.

    Knowing how to open the door, operate the gas/break, read the stuff in the dash, that is about the same as "put a CD in" or "click on that icon there."

    There is a requirement on how operate a car. Not how to buid, fix, troubleshoot, or maintain one.

    --
    vi + /etc over regedit any day of the week.