NEW YORK, June 13, 2007
FBI: "Botherders" Hijacked Millions Of PCs
Three Charged With Cyber Crimes; FBI Trying To Identify All The Victims
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(CBS/AP)
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The FBI and the Department of Justice have charged several alleged cyber criminals responsible for gaining control of over one million personal computers and using them for identity theft and mass distribution of spyware, officials announced Wednesday.
The suspects targeted victims' computers, known as "botnets," and operated them remotely by an outside "botherder" in order to steal personal information or distribute software, the FBI charges.
"An attacker gains control by infecting the computer with a virus or other malicious code and the computer continues to operate normally," FBI Cyber Division Assistant Director James Finch said in a statement. "The majority of victims are not even aware that their computer has been compromised or their personal information exploited."
FBI Cyber Division Deputy Assistant Director Shawn Henry declined to say how long the investigation has been going on, saying only that today's release is the result of an investigation that has been going on "for many months in many cities."
These subjects have been charged with, or arrested for botnet-related computer fraud and abuse:
The FBI is working with computer industry partners, including the Carnegie Mellon University's Computer Emergency Response Team, to notify botnet victims, but officials stress that they will not be able to contact everyone whose computer was affected.
"We have been identifying as many victims as possible, but we cannot identify all of them," Henry said, "People need to take specific action to remediate their computer from attacks otherwise their computers will remain in compromised positions."
In addition to installing security systems, the FBI encourages computer users to avoid botnets to us caution when giving out personal information online. The federal government and technology industry also provide online resources, such as onguardonline.gov, that offer computer security tips.
FBI officials stress that this is an ongoing investigation and that they will continue to try to raise public awareness about the dangers of not securing personal computers.
"This is not unlike when the police alert people of a problem in a neighborhood and residents are encouraged to lock doors and turn on the lights at night," Henry said, "People need to take specific action to protect themselves."
Emily Rand
© MMVII, CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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Maybe it's time we took the same stance regarding the Internet. Why should morons who don't know what they're doing and won't invest in proper software continue to be tolerated? They are at least half of the problem.
Use a stateful firewall, a secure (hardened) operating system (not ms products they are not secure and violate your privacy by default) and don't give out any personal information on the internet - and understand that even with all those precautions, government agents can still monitor you. Talk to your elected government representatives (in person if you can) with a vengence about your right to privacy. Tell them they should be maintaining a governmental system consistent with our cultural understanding of "freedom".
Use Mozilla Firefox and the add on "adblock", you can overlay the flash advertisements and effectively block all of them (and the other ads as well) using wildcards.
Inversely, this could be construed as "if the big guys do wrong things, the little guys should be able to as well."
I don't care how big or small a person or company is. If they're doing something like this, they need to be punished in a serious manner. The article infers that these "little guys" took control of anywhere from thousands to TENS OF MILLIONS of computers. If you're stupid enough to unlawfully hack into even one other computer, you're fair game. Perhaps if enough small-time folks get busted, then more attention will be brought to the problem, and the big guys will be focused on. One can only hope.
I just can't believe that if company B is getting away with something, person A should be able to, as well. Illegal is illegal, regardless of the quantity of perpetrators.
to cbgerry, the free ad plugging your site is not so different from bots, spam, drm, or any other unwanted activity our computers do "for us", we participate in these forums to exchange info, not to plug our own sites.
Bot nets are a fact of life, used even by the US government to spy on, or otherwise control our property. Windows Vista uses the same techniques in its registration programs, Hollywood uses it for info gathering, courtesy of MS and the US government.
I object to the notion of "its bad, except for when the rich, or the government does it, then its good".
If botnet ops should be penalized for their activity, so too should Microsoft, Apple, most Hollywood movie distribution companies, and the US government.
Don't misunderstand, I don't condone the activity, I simply condemn the "only jack the little guys" approach, while ignoring, even codifying into law the same activity as done by the rich, and the government.
Webmaster http://www.BlueCollarPC.Net
Maybe the botnet operators need to steal enough money to make them as rich as Sony, or Microsoft, then their actions will be considered legal."
Well said.
Maybe the botnet operators need to steal enough money to make them as rich as Sony, or Microsoft, then their actions will be considered legal.
Re: "An attacker gains control by infecting the computer with a virus or other malicious code..."
This is not unlike a visit to the CBS Newz Website!
This site tries to put all kinds of nasty garbage on visitors' machines. It is always a good idea to run your favorite spy-ware detecting software after visiting this site.
Spy-ware maintenance doesn't really lessen the overall chunkiness of this site very much, though. Hopefully the site administrators will eventually be able to work some of the bugs out, and the site won't have such a clunky feel.
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