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JavaScript Botnet Sheds Light On Criminal Activity
CowboyRobot writes "Informatica64, a security research group, demonstrated the use of cached JavaScript to control computers connecting to a malicious proxy. 'The researchers found a variety of low-level criminals using their proxy server: fraudsters posing as British immigration officials offering work permits in hopes of stealing money and sensitive documents from their victims; a man pretending to be a pretty woman on a number of dating sites to con victims into sending money for a plane ticket; and another fraudster selling nonexistent Yorkshire Terriers.'"
It is very likely that companies and governments are already using this technique to eavesdrop on criminal activity, Alonso said.
Really? How about them using it to eavesdrop on -everyone- regardless on if it is "criminal" or not. Plus, I'm sure governments have more invasive methods rather than just this.
Taxation is legalized theft, no more, no less.
Yep, this is proof... Javascript is a real programming language.
"... and another fraudster selling nonexistent Yorkshire Terriers.'"
Bullshit. Yorkshire Terriers most certainly exist.
It shouldn't be a crime to sell non-existant Yorkies. Just think of the ensuing peace and quiet of neighbors, because the would-be purchaser no longer has the cash for a real one. That man owes society nothing. Yay, society should reward him for performing such a public service.
i saw the talk a def con this weekend.
one of my take ways from this talk is when certain sites such as youtube/imgur/slashdot/reddit are
black listed due to corporate IT guidelines people often go to proxies to circumvent
this. So the net effect of black listing popular sites (besides being a pain) is to make your
network less secure.
imho ... wasted banwidth is better than getting hacked.
Nobody in their right mind runs javascript from random sites any more
Nobody cares except computer security professionals. Sure, I run noscript, adblock, and requestpolicy in FF, but no one else I know does unless I force them. Tons of sysadmins and low-level techs in the IT field don't even bother or know why they should care. So people who should have a clue are still running javascript (and flash, pdfs, and random exploit laden images from web ads) from random sites. What do you think that means about non-IT folk? They're all doing it, and only changing the browser defaults will do anything about it.