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Conficker Blamed In $72M Scareware Ring

Posted by timothy on from the your-lack-of-ethics-intrigues-me dept.

tsu doh nimh writes with an update on the previously mentioned crackdown on scammers peddling fake antivirus products, who were apparently taking advantage of the worm that just won't go away: "Police in Ukraine said the thieves fleeced unsuspecting consumers with the help of the infamous Conficker worm, although it remains unclear how big a role the fast-spreading worm played in this crime. Interestingly, the picture showing the stack of PCs confiscated by Ukrainian authorities (SBU) in this raid is identical to the one shown in an SBU press release last fall, when the SBU detained five individuals connected to high-profile ZeuS Trojan attacks."

14 of 28 comments (clear)

  1. When will these organizations fleece from ... by Super+Dave+Osbourne · · Score: 1

    the governments they seem to be truly angry at and bring them down? I'm curious is there any virus or network that is exclusively targeting governments rather than average consumers that are ill informed or unfortunate to click and install some otherwise obvious infection?

    1. Re:When will these organizations fleece from ... by Luckyo · · Score: 2

      These kinds of exploits hit people who don't update their computers, don't use firewalls and generally have no clue about security. Most government and corporate networks have corporate IT section that is very well prepared to fight such basic threats.

      Corporations and governments are hit by very different kinds of attacks (i.e. lulzsec, cyber war attacks, etc), which are specially tailored for each target.

    2. Re:When will these organizations fleece from ... by sortius_nod · · Score: 2

      Yeh, that's why a major bank I worked for a year ago was having trouble removing conficker from 2500 servers and over 20 000 termianls... such a different conficker to the one everyone else got.

    3. Re:When will these organizations fleece from ... by Luckyo · · Score: 1

      There are always exceptions to the rule that reinforce the rule.

    4. Re:When will these organizations fleece from ... by sortius_nod · · Score: 1

      That is not how that phrase is meant to be used:

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exception_that_proves_the_rule

    5. Re:When will these organizations fleece from ... by Luckyo · · Score: 2

      Innovation is all the rage nowadays!

  2. Pictures by Idimmu+Xul · · Score: 1

    Those 2 pictures are the same stacks, in the same room, just with the camera rotated 90 degrees ...

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    The problem with slashdot is that most of its users were bullied and stuffed into lockers as kids!
    1. Re:Pictures by WrongSizeGlass · · Score: 1

      Those 2 pictures are the same stacks, in the same room, just with the camera rotated 90 degrees ...

      It's called recycling. They're just doing their part to help the 'green' effort. Though on /. I think we call it redundant or a dupe.

    2. Re:Pictures by sortius_nod · · Score: 1

      At least they were nice enough to use _some_ different money. Makes it look more real.

  3. Conficker again? by Compaqt · · Score: 3, Informative

    This a really nasty piece of malware that actually prevents you from reaching any security-related sites.

    This was also the impetus for my finally moving from XP to Ubuntu full-time.

    Word for the wise: after you run a standard battery of antivirus programs, you should also run conciller.exe . That's the only way to get rid of it for good. Otherwise it embeds itself into system files and re-emerges even after you apply a service pack.

    More here.

    --
    I'm not a lawyer, but I play one on the Internet. Blog
    1. Re:Conficker again? by JohannesJ · · Score: 1

      Which begs the question This is is a well known malware . Every major antiviral software claims to detect and remove it. So either A) The anti-malware manufactures and those who market it are liars and Frauds. or B) people who get infected are Ignorant , stupid or lazy and just don't use good updated AV software . Which is it is it.?

    2. Re:Conficker again? by orange47 · · Score: 1

      well, it is not so well known if it gets regular updates and 'mutates'.
      made me move from samba to ftp.
      blocking 'security-related sites' is actually a good thing, so you know host is infected.

  4. Police Lie? Really? I don't believe it! by Zero__Kelvin · · Score: 1

    "Police in Ukraine said ..."

    The pictures they claim show evidence are the same as an earlier picture showing evidence against someone else. I think we can safely ignore whatever the police say, at least in this case.

    --
    Guns don't kill people; Physics kills people! - John Lithgow as Dick Solomon on Third Rock From The Sun
  5. Re:Police Lie? Really? I don't believe it! by Luckyo · · Score: 1

    I don't think that's up to us, but to Ukraine's applicable court to judge evidence.