Koobface Malware Traced To 5 Russians

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."

Comments

Re:Normally, I oppose botnets and other malware st

[K. S. Kyosuke]

Girls. Remember them?

Nope, I only remember the burly soldiers, before they left in 1990. But now that I'm thinking about it, it's quite possible that some of the burly soldiers were actually girls.

Wow, Russians involved in cybercrime....

[Viol8]

Well thats that mystery solved. Now if only I could remember where those damn bears went after they borrowed a toilet roll...

Eastern European Malware

[omganton]

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?

Re:Eastern European Malware

[jeyk]

I personally think it is economically driven. The definition of "great revenue" is not the same in different parts of the world.

Re:Eastern European Malware

[Anonymous Coward]

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.

Re:Eastern European Malware

[cecom]

I come from Eastern Europe and I think that it is socially driven. Corruption is so prevalent in absolutely every aspect of life - from traffic tickets to simply buying something in the store. So "white collar" crime like this is socially acceptable.

It is most definitely not economically driven - in Eastern Europe there is a huge hunger for competent developers, so unless Russia is an exception (I doubt it), it is easy to find a legal well paying programming job.

Full disclosure: I left Eastern Europe a long time ago and I am not Russian, but I am extrapolating from my own country.

Re:Eastern European Malware

[mapkinase]

The factor is disregard for somebody else's property, starting from communal property and private property. Decades of communistic approach to property lead to generation of thiefs, when practically everybody had no moral qualms about stealing practically anything, especially badly guarded.

I remember the time when I first came to US, I was in the lab with postdocs like myself, from Soviet Russia, and one of them was quite excited about the discovery that one can manipulate the odometer to decrease the reading and not be penalized for a leased car.

Russians could be very moral and compassionate to other people, but the area of property is moral tabula rasa for Russians.

Stealing, breaking, damaging, vandalizing, wasting - all kind of things one can do with property in Russia, except for investing, saving, multiplying...

Re:Eastern European Malware

[Pecisk]

I strongly disagree (yeah, I'm coming from Eastern Europe). If that would be true new generations would be example of politeness and respect to each other.

It has little to do with abolishment of private property (In fact, for Bolshevist elite owning something a lot wasn't a issue, government couldn't take your property away just because they would like to after sixties). Main reason was butchering of middle intelligence of Eastern Europe during Stalin and WWII times. Lot of them where Jews, lot of them where liberals, lot of them where actual communists (yeah, Stalin loved to push his way how he sees future to people). Both sides - Bolshevists and Nazi - killed them in hundred thousands. Society were raped brutally. It resulted in lot of perversions you see today in Russia and Eastern Russia.

Without people as example respect to each other became extinct and with it - respect to other property (because it is related with respect to other feelings and opinion).

And in the end, correction - Communism never calls for abolishment of property, it calls for abolishment of capital property used for manufacturing. And it calls for respecting collective property. I know, I know, human nature can't wrap his mind around it - BS, I don't believe that. We choose because it is more convenient to tell us that no one can stop greed.

Re:Normally, I oppose botnets and other malware st

[NonUniqueNickname]

"Librum facium"? Your Latin skills deserve in faciem palma.

Re:Normally, I oppose botnets and other malware st

[plopez]

You're probably thinking of the women's olympic teams.

Re:Job Security

[Zocalo]

According to the story the information was already shared with select members of the security community and relevent law enforcement, which presumably includes the St. Petersberg PD where most of the suspects seem to spend a lot of their time. I'm guessing this public release of the data is because local enforcement have yet to act on the information (or have already been bribed to ignore it) and this is an attempt to give things a nudge in the right direction.

Re:Normally, I oppose botnets and other malware st

[Forty Two Tenfold]

Coding tends to be better on an empty stomach I guess.

Plenus venter non studet libenter.

Sad

[ThatsNotPudding]

We (US-ians) can croak known terrorists on foreign soils without much in the way of permission, but we can't get these guys?