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Koobface Malware Traced To 5 Russians

Posted by timothy on from the but-that's-right-near-tampa dept.

New submitter theonlyholle writes "Naked Security, the Sophos IT security blog, has published an article about the authors of the Koobface malware that plagued Facebook users in 2008 and the investigation that led to their identification. Apparently the botnet was created by five Russians from St. Petersburg."

2 of 64 comments (clear)

  1. Eastern European Malware by omganton · · Score: 3, Interesting

    It seems that most malware originates from the Eastern European block, mainly Russia and the former USSR nations. I wonder if this is economically driven or socially driven. Is the creation of malware an attempt to generate revenue (via trojans that must be "purchased" to unlock all features and "remove infections"), or is it some type of political statement against the rest of the internet. If there was great revenue to be had, you'd think the malware would come from all over the world. Why the isolation to such a specific area?

    1. Re:Eastern European Malware by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

      It seems that most malware originates from the Eastern European block, mainly Russia and the former USSR nations. I wonder if this is economically driven or socially driven. Is the creation of malware an attempt to generate revenue (via trojans that must be "purchased" to unlock all features and "remove infections"), or is it some type of political statement against the rest of the internet. If there was great revenue to be had, you'd think the malware would come from all over the world. Why the isolation to such a specific area?

      To get decent malware, you basically need (A) Reasonably smart/skillful technical people and (B) a lack of legitimate jobs that pay better than stealing

      Most places that have A don't have B, but it is unfortunately common in some parts of the Eastern block.