Microsoft Builds Legal Weapon to Take Apart Botnets

The take-down of the Rustock botnet in March gave Microsoft another head for its mantle: two in just the last year. That’s an impressive take for any private firm, and one of a string of actions against bot networks in recent years. But security experts say that the company’s success in building ...

Mega-D: March, 2010

The takedown of Mega-D, also known as Ozdok, was spearheaded by researchers at anti-botnet firm FireEye. The botnet, a byproduct of PC infections linked to the Mega-D Trojan, comprised tens of thousands of machines and was responsible for sending out a large portion of the spam on the Internet–at...

Alex Lanstein on the Rustock Botnet Takedown

Dennis Fisher talks with Alex Lanstein of FireEye about this week’s takedown of the Rustock botnet, the important legal precedent it helped set with Microsoft’s lawsuit and the mechanics behind the operation and dismantling of large-scale botnets. Podcast audio courtesy of sykboy65 Subscribe to t...

Microsoft, FireEye Take Down Notorious Rustock Botnet

Being a botnet operator has traditionally been a fairly reliable and easy way to make money. But it’s starting to become a slightly dicier occupation these days, as evidenced by the news of the takedown of the venerable and virulent Rustock botnet by researchers at Microsoft and FireEye. Rustock...

Google Fixes Flash Bug in Chrome as Researchers Track Targeted Attacks

Google has reacted very quickly to the news this week of a new vulnerability in Adobe Flash and on Tuesday released a new version of Chrome that includes a fix for the Flash bug. Adobe said it plans to have its own fix ready for the flaw next week. The new version of Chrome that Google released h...

Alleged Mega-D Botnet Controller Pleads Not Guilty

The man accused of running the Mega-D spam-spewing botnet has pleaded not guilty to charges that he was using the botnet to send millions of spam messages a day, some of them laden with malware. Oleg Nikolaenko was arraigned in U.S. District Court in Wisconsin on Friday on charges that he violate...

FBI Arrests Alleged Head of Mega-D Botnet Operation

The FBI has arrested the man that they allege is behind the notorious Mega-D botnet, which at one point accounted for nearly a third of all of the spam on the Internet. The arrest came to light this week after the man was caught entering the U.S. last month on his way to a car show. The man that...

Some Pushdo Variants Resuming Spam Operations

A few days after the majority of the command-and-control servers belonging to one of the variants of the Pushdo botnet were taken offline, some researchers say that there are indications that portions of the botnet are back to their old tricks, downloading new spam templates for a resumption of...

Q&A: Marc Maiffret of eEye

Marc Maiffret, a security researcher known for his controversial opinions on software security and his efforts to get Microsoft specifically to improve the security of its products, is returning to eEye Digital Security, the vulnerability management company he helped found more than a decade ago...

Marc Maiffret at RSA 2010

Dennis Fisher talks with Marc Maiffret of FireEye at RSA Conference 2010 about the lack of sophistication in the Aurora attack and the state of malware attacks on the Web...

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...

Marc Maiffret on Modern Malware, Code Red and the State of Security Research

Dennis Fisher talks with researcher Marc Maiffret of FireEye about the evolution of modern malware, the discovery of the Code Red worm and how far security research has come in the last 10 years. Podcast audio courtesy of sykboy65 Subscribe to the Digital Underground podcast on...

How to Take Down a Botnet

The botnet problem has reached epidemic levels in recent months, with the continued growth of large-scale botnets, as well as the identification of smaller, more targeted networks around the world. But researchers have been taking steps to disrupt botnets of late, with some notable successes, as...