KOOBFACE COMPUTER VIRUS GANG UNMASKED
Online confidence researchers claimed Tuesday to have identified the members of a Russian gang of cyber criminals at the back of the Koobface computer virus which has pounded Facebook and other sites.
Facebook pronounced duration that the confidence group had helped hit out a computer server which tranquil a Koobface “botnet” of malware-infected personal computers.
According to January Droemer, an eccentric computer confidence researcher, and Dirk Kollberg of confidence organisation SophosLabs, the 5 members of the Koobface squad live in St. Petersburg, Russia.
In a blog post, Sophos pronounced justification and the identities of the 5 Koobface suspects has been handed over to law enforcement.
The Koobface virus initial emerged in 2008, swelling in the form of messages with theme lines such as “You demeanour only overwhelming in this new movie.”
Users who clicked on the summary were sensitive their Flash player was out of date and were stirred to download Flash software, exposing their computer to Koobface malware.
Koobface duped a little owners of putrescent personal computers in to shopping anti-virus program and enlisted their machines in to a botnet done up of hundreds of thousands of putrescent computers.
“Koobface was able to perform these actions by communicating with a executive ‘Command & Control’ server, which destined the compromised computers to do the gang’s bidding,” Facebook said.
“This remained the box until final March, when Facebook Security was able to perform a technical takedown of this ‘Command & Control’ Mothership,” it said.
“Since afterwards we have had no new sightings of Koobface for over 9 months and our teams are operative tough to keep it that way,” Facebook said.
“While we have been able to keep Koobface off Facebook, we won’t acknowledgement feat opposite the pathogen until the authors are brought to justice,” it said.
“To this end, we will be pity our comprehension with the rest of the online confidence village in the entrance weeks in an bid to absolved the Web of this pathogen forever,” Facebook said.
Online confidence researchers claimed Tuesday to have identified the members of a Russian gang of cyber criminals at the back of the Koobface computer virus which has pounded Facebook and other sites.
Facebook pronounced duration that the confidence group had helped hit out a computer server which tranquil a Koobface “botnet” of malware-infected personal computers.
According to January Droemer, an eccentric computer confidence researcher, and Dirk Kollberg of confidence organisation SophosLabs, the 5 members of the Koobface squad live in St. Petersburg, Russia.
In a blog post, Sophos pronounced justification and the identities of the 5 Koobface suspects has been handed over to law enforcement.
The Koobface virus initial emerged in 2008, swelling in the form of messages with theme lines such as “You demeanour only overwhelming in this new movie.”
Users who clicked on the summary were sensitive their Flash player was out of date and were stirred to download Flash software, exposing their computer to Koobface malware.
Koobface duped a little owners of putrescent personal computers in to shopping anti-virus program and enlisted their machines in to a botnet done up of hundreds of thousands of putrescent computers.
“Koobface was able to perform these actions by communicating with a executive ‘Command & Control’ server, which destined the compromised computers to do the gang’s bidding,” Facebook said.
“This remained the box until final March, when Facebook Security was able to perform a technical takedown of this ‘Command & Control’ Mothership,” it said.
“Since afterwards we have had no new sightings of Koobface for over 9 months and our teams are operative tough to keep it that way,” Facebook said.
“While we have been able to keep Koobface off Facebook, we won’t acknowledgement feat opposite the pathogen until the authors are brought to justice,” it said.
“To this end, we will be pity our comprehension with the rest of the online confidence village in the entrance weeks in an bid to absolved the Web of this pathogen forever,” Facebook said.