Internet Malware (Viruses) and Cyber Crime.

I suggest a topic here for warnings about particular Viruses or particular Malware that might affect BSG members and the efforts taken to prevent it.

Posters should try to avoid jargon or explain it, so that it is meaningful to non-technical members.

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Zeus is Malware (a 'virus') of the silent & deadly type, written by professional cyber criminals (not teenagers out for a kick like the old viruses). The action of Zeus is to hide itself on a compromised computer and intercept On-line Banking details. It is possibly the most serious bit of Malware around ar the moment. It uses all sorts of programming tricks to hide itself in an infected computer.

This article depicts the current state of the 'war' against Zeus.

http://www.scmagazineuk.com/microsoft-takes-down-cc-servers-to-disrupt-zeus/article/233611/?DCMP=EMC-SCUK_Newswire

A BotNet is a collection of "innocent's" computers that have been infected by one of a number of different Malware programs which have enabled a cyber criminal to gain remote control the computer and to use it for malicious purposes. A typical botnet consists of hundreds of thousands of infected computers with the owners unaware of what they are being maliciously used for.

BCG*

Cheers Bill.

Quote: billwill @ March 27 2012, 2:20 PM BST

BSG members

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You're so old school.

"A typical botnet consists of hundreds of thousands of infected computers with the owners unaware of what they are being maliciously used for."

What do they use them for?

Quote: keewik @ March 27 2012, 4:15 PM BST

What do they use them for?

View original

Sending spam, DDoS (distributed denial of service) attacks (hundreds of thousands of computers access a website and knock it offline by overwhelming it with page requests) and even for brute force cracking of passwords: it's like having a supercomputer at your disposal.

These criminal gangs sell access to their network of infected machines to spammers and anyone who is willing to pay for a DDoS attack, etc.

By the way folks, that link that I gave above, contain in turn, lots of links that tell you about the Zeus malware.

Attention fellow Mac users: we finally have a trojan of our very own and it's infected at least 600,000 Macs so far. What makes it especially nasty is that, unlike other previous OS X nasties, it can infect your machine without you having to type in your password. My ex-girlfriend's laptop became infected by visiting an innocuous web page.

Here's a story about it that tells how to check your Mac for signs of infection and gives links to cleanup instructions:

http://gizmodo.com/5899352/mac-flashback-trojan-find-out-if-youre-one-of-the-600000-infected