FBI Takes Out $14M DNS Malware Operation 57
coondoggie writes "U.S. law enforcement today said it had smashed what it called a massive, sophisticated Internet fraud scheme that injected malware in more than four million computers in over 100 countries while generating $14 million in illegitimate income. Of the computers infected with malware, at least 500,000 were in the United States, including computers belonging to U.S. government agencies, such as NASA."
Last Post (Score:3, Funny)
Posted from one of the bots.
Your PC was worth $3.50 to the botnet (Score:2)
Congratulations! The Botnet operators thought $3.50 (for them) was worth more than (probability you noticed a problem) * (all the effort and money it would take you to fix it.) Of course, if you're a typical botnet zombie host, the effort and cost were $0, plus a bit extra because your PC is running slower, but hey, you had lots of bogomips to spare.
That's worth $3.49 more than your geek card:) (Score:1)
Don't you have to be running Linux to have BogoMIPS?
Wouldn't these machines likely be running a different operating system?
Cheers
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Well wouldn't ya know it...
djwong.org/programs/bogomips/
Someone did a Windows port!
I stand corrected, my joke was not funny, or technically correct.
Cheers!
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BogoMIPS is a measure of hardware performance. True, it's a benchmark mainly used by Linux, as opposed to WinBench or FPS-with-some-game, but that doesn't matter; we're not talking about the botnets exploiting a bug in the benchmarking program to get it to do work for them :-) But they're the current benchmark; I've also used machines during the years when we benchmarked in SPECints, in Dhrystones and Whetstones, and in MIPS, and before that (since "1 MIPS" was canonically the speed of a VAX 11/780, and
Nice job Feds. Credit when credit is due. (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Nice job Feds. Credit when credit is due. (Score:5, Funny)
Sometimes you just gotta hand it to 'em
Other times, they just take it... :)
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http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/apr/03/us-bank-mexico-drug-gangs [guardian.co.uk]
So strange how different parts of the US gov can find the cash and time to hunt cyber millions but fail to get a court to understand drug billions....
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Operating systems stats? (Score:3)
It would be interesting to see the breakdown of the operating systems the infected computers were running.
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I don't think I'd be surprised at the results.
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Why do you say it would be interesting?
The answer is such a given that your question is actually rhetorical.
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Nothing like this on the App Store ....
Re:Operating systems stats? (Score:5, Informative)
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I read the link but it didn't mention OSX.
Let me guess, a Windows turfer? Because you misled people into thinking it was OSX, and added 'Linux' compliment on to get votes.
Instructions for apple are on page 4 half way down. Did you fail reading in high school?
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--All of my browsing goes through a Linux-based Squid proxy with its own DNS settings, so I'm not really worried. Check it out, it's free:
http://communities.vmware.com/message/1828477#1828477 [vmware.com]
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Socializing the externalities (Score:2)
It would be interesting to see the breakdown of the operating systems the infected computers were running.
Ah, we're all about socializing the externalities for the corporations these days. How much of this bill do you think Microsoft will pick up? How about 'none' so they have no real incentive to secure their products?
Heck, it justifies a larger FBI, so they'll probably give them a metal for being so cooperative.
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they'll probably give them a metal for being so cooperative.
I'd like to give Microsoft a small amount of lead, not very much, but I'd like to do it as fast as possible. About 680 MPH fast. ;)
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Difference here being the Linux contributors aren't making you pay for their software, right?
So it's not really a fair comparison IMO
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Then sue companies like Red Hat. I'm sure the folks here would be OK with that, right?
4 million? MASSIVE?!? (Score:4, Interesting)
That's like claiming the interception of one bale of weed at the Mexican Border is a Major Interdiction.
Still, glad they're doing something. Every little bit helps.
Oh, yeah? (Score:1)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BonziBUDDY [wikipedia.org]
If it's packaged nicely....
FBI stops DNS poisoning scheme (Score:5, Funny)
The FBI managed to stop MAFIAA from passing PROTECT-IP?
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you put an infected machine on the internet, and your connection is disabled until you have clearly demonstrated that you have fixed the problem.
I used to advocate a messaging system whereby _anybody_ could send a (PGP) signed 'disable' message to an IP address to get the machine turned off at the router. Whether this message got propagated or acted upon would depend on the level of trust in the signer - not unlike BGP. In today's NAT world it might need to be a bit more complex than I'd thought about in
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I doubt it. There was a story yesterday that 60% of malware found in the wild has no AV-software coverage.
Why should that be a surprise? AV software is installed on every vulnerable PC sold and even without updates it mostly protects against all the old threats. Even after that there is a pretty good chance it's infernal nagging for a credit card will get an updated AV installed, with or without a CC. The "mindshare" has been built, everybody believes that Windows must have anti-virus.
But, as has been said repeatedly the AV industry is reactive (though they are starting to try to solve the HARD problem of be
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Some ISPs do this, they'll redirect all webpages to a warning page if mass spammings are detected from your connection.
hmm, need to read the FA (Score:2)
Oh wait, so it's not about Skype?
Of course, there are some remaining problems... (Score:4, Interesting)
Seen in that context, this announcement is just a PR exercise. It has no real significance.
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Reading Krebs' article on the topic, the FBI has partnered with ISC to help plan a substitute DNS to stand in for the people whose computers are infected, to notify the ISPs, and to devise a plan to help get their computers cleaned up. The bigger problem is it's a boot sector infection that they don't yet appear to have a way of safely removing.
Personally, I'd rather disenfranchise them. ISC could stand up a substitute DNS server to resolve every address to a redirector site that sends them to a page on fb
How to check DNS server settings on OS X (Score:4, Informative)
This is good on Lion and Snow Leopard AFAIK: networksetup -getdnsservers Ethernet Wi-Fi
This command has extensive help: networksetup -help
I use networksetup every day. I have numerous makefile targets that change my network settings based on my location. I'm a a road warrior changing networks frequently and using a VPN and ssh to connect to the corporate network.
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Mod parent up!
malware infects 'computers` (Score:1)
Did any of these malware infested 'computers` run Microsoft Windows?
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Article mentions that the criminals were estonians, but when I read the local news, yes I am from Estonia, I realized that all of them were actually russians. They just happen to have citizenship of Estonia.
well, they are estonians. that they just happen to have estonian nationality on their papers makes it so. and one russian.
or if you take another stance you might as well go around running and shouting that linus is swedish.
The computers seized were running (Score:1)
FBI code named Magic Lantern (botnet) eeek!
DARE 2.0 (Score:2)
Good for them! (Score:2)
Finally doing some good in the world, keep it up, feels good to the rest of us.
Typical government (Score:2)