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Cisco Finds Backdoor Installed On 12 Million PCs (securityweek.com)

Posted by msmash on from the malware-must-die dept.

Reader wiredmikey writes: Security researchers at Cisco have come across a piece of software that installed backdoors on 12 million computers around the world. Researchers determined that the application, installed with administrator rights, was capable not only of downloading and installing other tools, such as a known scareware called System Healer, but also of harvesting personal information. The software, which exhibits adware and spyware capabilities, was developed by a French online advertising company called Tuto4PC. The "features" have led Cisco Talos to classify the Tuto4PC software as a "full backdoor capable of a multitude of undesirable functions on the victim machine." Tuto4PC said its network consisted of nearly 12 million PCs in 2014, which could explain why Cisco's systems detected the backdoor on 12 million devices. An analysis of a sample set revealed infections in the United States, Australia, Japan, Spain, the UK, France and New Zealand.Tuto4PC has received flak from many over the years, including French regulators.

4 of 67 comments (clear)

  1. So why hasn't Tuto4PC been sued or legislated away by zoomshorts · · Score: 2, Insightful

    So why havent these douchebags been removed from existance?

  2. So how do we detect if we have it? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I hate articles that give no info on how to fix the issue.. only provide enough info to scare ya.

    1. Re:So how do we detect if we have it? by greenfruitsalad · · Score: 5, Insightful

      i hate the way it's always reported. i.e. when there's a worm affecting linux systems, the article always makes that clear. when there's a trojan affecting osx, it says so too. but when shit hits windows, it's suddenly computers or PCs. why don't journalists start calling things what they are? WINDOWS viruses, WINDOWS rootkits, WINDOWS backdoors, etc. It's not PCs that are infected, it's PCs running WINDOWS that are infected in 99.99% of cases.

  3. Re:Missing from the summary by hydrofix · · Score: 1, Insightful

    It's probably a misnomer to call this a backdoor or virus. The users probably need click through some EULA where they give the company permission to do as they see best with the user's computer. Computers are powerful machines and a great deal of users are just too ignorant and should not be allowed the install code downloaded from the Internet on their computers.