Nitol Infections Fall, But Malware Still Popping Up

When Microsoft went after the Nitol botnet in September, one of the key details in the investigation was the fact that much of the botnet was built by pre-loading malware onto laptops during the manufacturing process in China. This was the clearest case yet of the phenomenon of certified pre-owne...

Microsoft Carries out Nitol Botnet Takedown

A botnet known as Nitol, built on the backs of PCs and laptops loaded with malware somewhere in the supply chain, was taken down by Microsoft. Microsoft’s Digital Crimes Unit was given permission this week by the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia to take over the 3322.org...

Alleged Mariposa Botmaster in Court

One of the men authorities allege to have been behind the massive–and now dead–Mariposa botnet, has gone on trial in Slovenia, more than two years after the initial arrests and takedown of the network. Mariposa was one of the first handful of botnets that authorities and security researchers work...

Researchers Pull the Plug on Remaining Grum Botnet C&C Servers

Just a couple of days after authorities in the Netherlands pulled the plug on two of the four command-and-control servers behind the Grum spam botnet, the remaining C&C servers have been taken offline as well, thanks to a cooperative effort among researchers. As a result, the number of...

Dutch Authorities Knock Out Grum Botnet C&C Servers

Dutch authorities have knocked out two of the command-and-control servers for one of the top spam-producing botnets, known as Grum. The action was not a complete knockout though, as there are still two other C&C servers at work, but researchers are optimistic that the volume of spam will drop as ...

CarderProfit Case Shows Maturation of FBI Anti-Cybercrime Operations

The FBI is the country’s top police unit, charged with tackling the biggest problems facing its citizens. Cybercrime, by just about any measure, would fall somewhere near the top of that list of problems.The FBI historically has been ineffective and at times indifferent to all of this. However,...

International Cyber Crime Takedown Said to Be Largest of Its Kind

A two-year undercover operation today netted two dozen arrests in eight countries in what federal authorities say is the largest coordinated international takedown in history directed at those who traffic stolen financial data through online forums. The investigation uncovered 411,000 compromised...

New Fraud Ring 'Operation High Roller' Targets the Rich

A recent fraud ring through which attackers raided high-value bank accounts, nicknamed Operation High Roller .PDF, employed attacks that were quick, required no human interaction and have already affected several tiers of credit unions, regional banks and large global banks, over the last several...

Active Zeus C&Cs Remain Following Microsoft Takedown

It appears that Microsoft’s recent Zeus takedown attempt left some bots behind. Days after the company announced it had sinkholed the troublesome botnet, researchers say that there are still some C&C domains active. FireEye Malware Intelligence Lab’s Atif Mushtaq is reporting that, despite a...

Richard Boscovich on the Zeus Botnet Takedown

Dennis Fisher talks with Richard Boscovich of the Microsoft Digital Crimes Unit about the operation to take down the Zeus botnet, how the company works with partners and law enforcement on these operations and the importance of getting the word out to consumers about the danger of botnets. Podcas...

Microsoft, Financial Groups Execute Takedown of Zeus Botnet Servers

Microsoft has gone after another botnet, this time targeting some of the command-and-control infrastructure behind the Zeus network with a takedown effort that included seizing two IP addresses used for C&C servers and filing suit against 39 unnamed defendants. The action against Zeus is the late...

Operation Ghost Click by FBI - Online advertising scam taken Down

Operation Ghost Click by FBI - Online advertising scam taken Down A gang of internet 'cyber bandits' who stole $14 million after hacking into at least 4 million computers in an online advertising scam have been arrested following a joint investigation by the FBI and Nasa. Six men are in custody i...

VeriSign demands Power to takedown non-legitimate website

VeriSign demands Power to takedown non-legitimate website VeriSign, which manages the database of all .com internet addresses, wants powers to shut down "non-legitimate" domain names when asked to by law enforcement. VeriSign should be able to shut down a .com or .net domain, and therefore its...

VeriSign demands Power to takedown non-legitimate website

VeriSign demands Power to takedown non-legitimate website VeriSign, which manages the database of all .com internet addresses, wants powers to shut down "non-legitimate" domain names when asked to by law enforcement. VeriSign should be able to shut down a .com or .net domain, and therefore its...

P2P Version of Zeus Botnet Appears

A new version of the Zeus malware has appeared, and this does not seem to be a minor upgrade, but a major custom version of the Trojan, which now sports a P2P capability that does away with the use of the domain-generation algorithm used in earlier versions and instead uses a hardcoded list of IP...

Botnet Takedown: Researcher Describes How Kelihos Fell

Dennis Fisher talks with Kaspersky Lab Researcher Tillmann Werner about the takedown of the Kelihos botnet, the network’s unique multi-tiered architecture, its custom protocol and the ethics and legality of pushing updates to disable bots on users’ machines. Podcast audio courtesy of sykboy65...

The Inside Story of the Kelihos Botnet Takedown

Earlier this week, Microsoft released an announcement about the disruption of a dangerous botnet that was responsible for spam messages, theft of sensitive financial information, pump-and-dump stock scams and distributed denial-of-service attacks. Kaspersky Lab played a critical role in this botn...

Microsoft Takes Down Kelihos Botnet

Continuing its legal assault on botnet operators and the hosting companies that the criminals use for their activities, Microsoft has announced new actions against a group of people it contends are responsible for the operation of the Kelihos botnet. The company has also helped to take down the...

Microsoft Offers $250k Reward for Rustock Information

Microsoft is now offering a $250,000 reward to help track down the people behind the notorious Rustock botnet. The company, which helped take down the botnet several months ago, said that it already has some good information on the crew behind the network and is now looking for information to bri...

Microsoft Says Rustock Botnet Cut in Half

In March, Microsoft announced that its Digital Crimes Unit had scored a major victory in the war against hackers with the takedown of the Rustock botnet. Since then, the company has continued to monitor the activity of the network and the machines infected with the Rustock-related malware and fou...