Google Sues Two Russians for Alleged Organized Crime Scheme (bloomberg.com) 9
Alphabet's Google is suing two Russian nationals it claims are part of a criminal enterprise that has silently infiltrated more than a million computers and devices around the world, creating "a modern technological and borderless incarnation of organized crime." From a report: In a complaint being unsealed Tuesday in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, Google names two defendants, Dmitry Starovikov and Alexander Filippov, as well as 15 unnamed individuals. Google claims the defendants have created a âoebotnetâ known as Glupteba, to use for illicit purposes, including the theft and unauthorized use of Google users' login and account information. A botnet is a network of internet-connected devices that have been infected with malware. When summoned together, they can do the bidding of a hacker, often with the devices' owners not realizing their machines have been hijacked. A swarm of devices can jam traffic at websites, run malware to steal login credentials, sell fraudulent credit cards online and grant unauthorized access to other cyber criminals. The Glupteba botnet stands out from others because of its "technical sophistication," using blockchain technology to protect itself from disruption, Google said in the complaint. At any moment, the power of the Glupteba botnet could be used in a powerful ransomware attack or distributed denial of service attack, Google said.
Re: Darn Russians (Score:4, Insightful)
Is there anything that the Russians cannot do?
Implement Unicode on /., apparently.
explains what a botnet is (Score:2, Funny)
A botnet is a network of internet-connected devices that have been infected with malware. When summoned together, they can do the bidding of a hacker, often with the devices' owners not realizing their machines have been hijacked.
Wow, I'm happy that this summary explains what a botnet is! Who knew?
Where are the feds? (Score:3)
I can't help but wonder why the billions we spend on national cybersecurity aren't being brought to the forefront here, at least the DOJ ?
Stop being passive against these assholes and go after them. I'm sure there's a nice deserted island we can deposit them on, or perhaps a prison barge w/o Internet for a few decades?
Re: (Score:1)
If these are the actual heads of the operation, it's nearly certain that they reside outside places where the US has any legal jurisdiction, and very little leverage. So it's not clear that the DOJ should bother. (I'll admit it isn't clear that they shouldn't. Seizure of assets is a reasonable thing to do if you actually can't prosecute someone.)
OTOH, what is the benefit for Google doing the prosecution? If there is some, then arguably it *should* have been done by the DOJ.
Re: (Score:2)
We've tried criminals in abstencia before. [slate.com] If the Feds can't get them then what does Google suing them accomplish?
Re: (Score:2)
Many internet communication services won't create an account without a phone number, linking it to a real Id. Google and Facebook have been linking computing hardware to a phone number for a number of years now. I regularly get "confirm your identity" messages demanding exactly that. I either go without or borrow the phone of a colleague for a few minutes.
Confused (Score:3)
This is more than distributed cyber-attacks, cyber-fraud and identify theft, it's de-valuing the revenue stream Google earns from spying on you: There's the real crime.
While government ensures corporations doesn't have certain rights, eg. assassination, criminal gangs now have the wealth and technology to do everything countries do. (eg. WTC bombing on Sep 11.) This, doubly so in cyber-space where political borders have limited effect and national police, limited power. The USA is quietly rewriting the terms of engagement for these "non-state actors". (See Julian Assange.)
What's the goal here: Virtue signaling? Blame and shame? Getting a favourable judgement and demanding the FBI get the money for them?