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3 Million Strong RAMNIT Botnet Taken Down

Posted by samzenpus on from the bring-it-down dept.

An anonymous reader writes The National Crime Agency's National Cyber Crime Unit worked with law enforcement colleagues in the Netherlands, Italy and Germany, co-ordinated through Europol's European Cybercrime Centre, to shut down command and control servers used by the RAMNIT botnet. Investigators believe that RAMNIT may have infected over three million computers worldwide, with around 33,000 of those being in the UK. It has so far largely been used to attempt to take money from bank accounts.

23 comments

  1. Netherlands Italy Germany and US by turkeydance · · Score: 1

    if Brazil Russia India and China are the BRICs countries, what are these?

    1. Re: Netherlands Italy Germany and US by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's okay to say nigga on the radio, god help you if you broadcast a single fuck.

    2. Re: Netherlands Italy Germany and US by basecastula+ · · Score: 1

      Since when can you say nigga on the radio? My hitta.

  2. NÃY4 by DrunkenTerror · · Score: 1

    I'm all fleek in not broadcasting fucks.

  3. RAMNIT botnet runs on computers .. by lippydude · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Hey, samzenpus what was the name of the Operating System the RAMNIT botnet runs on? Was it one of Apple OS X, Linux, Android or another OS that must never be mentioned on a technology site in conjunction with malware.

    1. Re:RAMNIT botnet runs on computers .. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Obviously it runs on the Amiga and some Atari 800 models.

    2. Re:RAMNIT botnet runs on computers .. by Caesar+Tjalbo · · Score: 4, Informative

      He copy pasted the first paragraph from tfa in tfs. Windows is immediately mentioned in the 2nd paragraph but do you really need it in tfs?

      --
      "I'm not much interested in interoperability. I want substitutability. I want to be able to throw your software out."
    3. Re:RAMNIT botnet runs on computers .. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      I had no issue understanding which OS was involved.

      I just automatically assumed "desktop computers" in terms of a large scale infection, since we generally don't hear about widespread botnets on servers. So of course I didn't think Android or Linux. Those OSes aren't for desktops. There's no practical reason for them to be.

      And when I think "desktop computers", I think about computers that are used in productive ventures -- Real Work. So of course I didn't think OS X, either.

    4. Re:RAMNIT botnet runs on computers .. by itzly · · Score: 5, Funny

      He did mention the botnet was 3 million computers. So, couldn't have been Linux.

    5. Re:RAMNIT botnet runs on computers .. by rdnetto · · Score: 1

      Yes, yes we do.

      --
      Most human behaviour can be explained in terms of identity.
  4. Thanks by XB-70 · · Score: 5, Insightful
    In many of my posts, I have been highly critical of the seeming non-efforts by government agencies to deal with SPAM, malware, phishing etc. etc.

    It is wonderful to hear this great news about good works being done for the greater good. Thank you to all the investigators for your many hours and hard work to shut this down.

    --
    *** Don't be dull.***
    1. Re:Thanks by rtb61 · · Score: 1

      It's internet janitorial work. No fame, no money and no promotions, so basically everyone does not much at all about it. Consider the NSA hacking all over the place, noticing all of this stuff, doing basically nothing about it (basically who gives a fuck it's a defensive security issue) except of course seeking to exploit it. So how come various governments are not going to their security agencies and saying why you do bloody nothing, why you bloody ignore it, why you pretend it doesn't exist, why you so busy hacking all politicians, activists and journalists communications that you basically ignore in your face criminal activity, apart from the odd effort and only at the behest of a major corporation, all other citizens can basically fuck off with the computer security problems.

      --
      Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
    2. Re:Thanks by SgtAaron · · Score: 1

      In many of my posts, I have been highly critical of the seeming non-efforts by government agencies to deal with SPAM, malware, phishing etc. etc.

      It is wonderful to hear this great news about good works being done for the greater good. Thank you to all the investigators for your many hours and hard work to shut this down.

      Wow. You are very good troll. Heh, even getting a few mod points. The reply to this is pretty good, too.

    3. Re:Thanks by SgtAaron · · Score: 1

      BTW, well said. So tired of spam--so now I'll likely get more :)

    4. Re:Thanks by coofercat · · Score: 1

      The National Crime Agency has been looking for crimes to work on since it started. I'm glad they've found something useful to do.

    5. Re:Thanks by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Consider the NSA hacking all over the place, noticing all of this stuff, doing basically nothing about it

      Upon discovering a giant botnet, the NSA does not think "We have to shut this down!". Their first thought is "We have to get control of this for ourselves!".

  5. Mac OS X is most vulnerable OS by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    clearly

  6. Detection? by basecastula+ · · Score: 3, Informative

    Here you go. Tell your clients. windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/detect-remove-ramnit-virus

    1. Re:Detection? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Program to detect one specific virus, 126M. They've been using their own dev tools again.

  7. Not a stealth infection by Mathinker · · Score: 1

    Microsoft's information about this botnet says that it disables all antivirus software. Not exactly hard to notice.

    And yet 3M computer users are happy to host it.

    No matter what other posts say about various OSs here, I don't think anything would make a difference: PEBCAK.

  8. Not the best by __aabppq7737 · · Score: 1

    Conficker was 25 million strong in its good days before the Conficker Cabal took it down.