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Europol, Microsoft Target 2-Million Strong ZeroAccess Click Fraud Botnet
tsu doh nimh writes "Authorities in Europe joined Microsoft Corp. this week in disrupting 'ZeroAccess,' a vast botnet that has enslaved more than two million PCs with malicious software in an elaborate and lucrative scheme to defraud online advertisers. KrebsOnSecurity.com writes that it remains unclear how much this coordinated action will impact the operations of ZeroAccess over the long term, but for now the PCs infected with the malware remain infected and awaiting new instructions. ZeroAccess employs a peer-to-peer architecture in which new instructions and payloads are distributed from one infected host to another. The actions this week appear to have targeted the servers that deliver a specific component of ZeroAccess that gives infected systems new instructions on how to defraud various online advertisers, including Microsoft. While this effort will not disable the ZeroAccess botnet (the infected systems will likely remain infected), it should allow Microsoft to determine which online affiliates and publishers are associated with the miscreants behind ZeroAccess, since those publishers will have stopped sending traffic directly after the takedown occurred. Europol has a released a statement on this action, and Microsoft has published a large number of documents related to its John Doe lawsuits intended to unmask the botnet the ZeroAccess operators and shut down the botnet."
The term "Click fraud" didn't use to bother me, as a concept. Now it's just a symbol of getting a little bit of disinformation in on a horrendous web-based spying and manipulation industry. I don't sympathize with those trying to extract money from advertisers by lying, but I'm 100% behind their collective bankruptcy.
malicious software in an elaborate and lucrative scheme to defraud online advertisers.
Remove the fraud from the online advertiser market? How could you consider such a thing?! ;D
Looks like it's much cheaper for Microsoft to have a "digital crimes unit" and let the government do the rest on behalf of the tax payer than to make their shitty operating system halfway secure in the first place.
Most advertising is fraudulent - defrauding the fraudsters is really a crime?
"Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it's there, and there's nothing you can do about it." - Charlie Br
Between being happy that someone is causing harm to advertisers, and being not happy that 2-million zombies are, well, existing.
For large sets, this will be our guide even unto death, for the LORD will work for each type of data it is applied to...
What a fantastic use of taxpayer funds.
All because of open source? It is sad to see profitable, talented companies who invest in strong locks, experiment with a socialist model.
Wait, back up a second!
You're telling me there's software that will automatically punish online advertisers? Where can I download this?
makes me happy
advertisers (and those who fund advertising) create a "botnet' of people's brains to extract money
using a brain's processing power and storage capacity without consent is no different than doing the same thing on someone's computer without consent
So giant botnets, massively spreading keyloggers, etc. designed to defraud individuals are no big deal, but holy shit... Go after the advertisers' money and you're inviting the wrath of governments. Yep, I see how it works!
Thanks to the War on Drugs, it's easier to buy meth than it is to buy cold medicine!
And these botnets wouldn't be viable without that leaky tub known as Microsoft Windows ..
There are no snake oil salesmen. Fast food companies promise fat and pimples, not skateboarding youth and beauty. And when there's a 4-wheel drive SUV on a mountain peak, they're always careful to show you the helicopter putting it there.