RSA 2010: Researchers Demo Mobile Botnet from Smartphone App

A pair of researchers has amassed nearly 8,000 iPhones and Android smartphones in an experimental mobile botnet that demonstrates the ease of spreading potentially malicious applications on these devices. Read the full article. Dark Reading...

RSA 2010: BlackEnergy 2 Botnet Revealed

Like the sequel to a successful movie, the botnet behind the distributed denial of service attacks that hit the country of Georgia during its conflict with Russia in 2008 has been updated. This time though, the idea isn’t hacktivism—it’s stealing financial data and, unlike in the case of other...

To Catch a Botnet: How Mariposa Was Busted

More details follow the news of the Spanish botnet Mariposa and its owners being caught. The Mariposa Working Group infiltrated the command-and-control structure of Mariposa to monitor the communication channels that relayed information from compromised systems back to the hackers who run the...

Mariposa Botnet Caught and Killed

Authorities have smashed one of the world’s biggest networks of virus-infected computers known as the Mariposa botnet, a data vacuum that stole credit cards and online banking credentials from as many as 12.7 million poisoned PCs. Read the full article. Associated Press...

Honeypots Threatened By Zombies

Innovations in botnet technology threaten the usefulness of honeypots, one of the main ways to study how bot herders control networks of zombie PCs. Computer scientists led by Cliff Zou and colleagues at the University of Central Florida warn that bot herders can now avoid honeypots – unprotected...

T.J. Campana on the Waledac Botnet Takedown

Dennis Fisher and Ryan Naraine talk with Microsoft’s T.J. Campana about the company’s work to disrupt and take down the Waledac botnet and the other work being done by Microsoft’s Digital Crimes Unit. Podcast audio courtesy of sykboy65 Subscribe to the Digital Underground podcast on...

A Closer Look at the Koobface Gang

The Koobface botnet is the tip of the iceberg for the malicious operations of the online crime ring. Here are the top 10 things you didn’t know about the Koobface gang. Read the full article. ZDNet...

Waledac Spam Botnet Domains Neutered

With the help of a U.S. federal judge, Microsoft has struck a blow against one of the Internet’s worst sources of spam: the notorious Waledac botnet. Microsoft said that it had been granted a court order that will cut off 277 .com domains associated with the botnet. Read the full article...

Botnet: Kneber

Kneber Zbot, BTN1 is a form of malware which is reported to have affected more than 74,000 PCs in 2,400 business and government systems around the world. Kneber, named after the username linking the infected computers worldwide Hilary Kneber, is related to the ZeuS botnet, a malware botnet packag...

Chuck Norris Botnet Discovered By Honeypot

Czech security experts say they have uncovered a global botnet that may be redirecting Web surfers to other sites for the purpose of stealing their data. The botnet’s creators have dubbed the network “Chuck Norris” after the famous Hollywood actor and martial arts expert. Read the full article...

Frequently Asked Questions On The Kneber Botnet

How did the Kneber botnet manage to stay beneath the radar? Who’s behind it? Is it an isolated underground project, or a part of the malicious portfolio of a cybercrime organization diversifying on multiple fronts within the underground marketplace? Read the full article. ZDNet...

Kneber Botnet Infiltrated 74,000 Systems

More than 74,000 PCs at nearly 2,500 organizations around the globe were compromised over the past year and a half in a botnet infestation designed to steal login credentials to bank sites, social networks, and e-mail systems, researchers have discovered. Read the full article. cnet...

Behind the Scenes of the Botnet Epidemic

2009 saw many, many new botnet outbreaks and advancements in their criminal management. Throughout the year Damballa tracked thousands of distinct criminal operated botnets and identified millions of newly compromised enterprise systems each day. This week I’m going to share some of our findings...

Zeus Botnet Steals $150K from Michigan Company

An insurance firm in Michigan lost nearly $150,000 this month as a result of a single computer virus infection. Read the full article. KrebsonSecurity...

New Criminal Toolkit Touts Zeus Killing

Purveyors of a new botnet toolkit are touting a feature aimed at aspiring cybercriminals: the opportunity to commandeer computers already compromised by an established crimeware package known as Zeus. Read the full article. The Register...

Pushdo Botnet Making the Rounds

More than 300 Web sites are being pestered by infected computers that are part of the Pushdo botnet, according to security researchers. Read the full article. Security Central...

Infiltrating the Pushdo Botnet

It’s very rare that we researchers get a chance to explore the inner workings of a botnet command and control server. Detailed insight into the botnet server or command component can give us valuable information about the motives of the botnet and possibly the bad guys behind it. But granting...

Lethic Spamming Botnet Shut Down

Yet another botnet has been shut down as of today as researchers joined forces with ISPs to cut communications to the prolific Lethic spamming botnet — a development that illustrates how botnet hunters increasingly are going on the offensive to stop cybercriminals, mainly by disrupting their...

Child of Storm Botnet 'Waledac' Is Expansive

In an undercover mission to learn more about the size and scope of the son of the infamous Storm botnet, Waledac, German researchers have discovered the spamming botnet is much bigger and more efficient than previously thought. Read the full article. Dark Reading...

iPhone Worm Was Simple, Yet Effective, Analysis Shows

The iKee worm that was infecting jailbroken iPhones last month was a simple, yet effective, piece of software that shows how easy it might be for an attacker to create a fairly large, functioning botnet comprising mobile devices, an analysis of the worm shows. Researchers at SRI International’s...